Freedom
by Selective scifi junkie
Summary: Two abnormal killers on the loose; both killing for sport, both slipping under the radar. One old adversary, one new threat. How many more will die before they are stopped? Teamfic, develops Magnitt undertones as it progresses. Details inside.
1. Methyl methanoate

**Summary: **Two abnormal killers on the loose; both killing for sport, both slipping under the radar. One old adversary, one new threat. How many more will die before they are stopped?

**Set: **After my previous Sanctuary fic, Monster. I may post a summary as a one-shot.

**Spoilers: **Sanctuary for all` (obviously), maybe `Kush`, definitely `The Five`, `Revelations` (both), `End of Nights` (both), `Eulogy`, `Haunted`, my fic `Monster` and `For king and Country`.

**Genres: **Mystery, thriller, adventure, angst, hurt/comfort.

**Rating: **Fairly strong T for bloody violence, infliction and effects of, also minor sex references. As an episode, a 15, milder than Nubbins, a little worse than Haunted.

**Disclaimer: **This world belongs to the genii Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood and Damian Kindler.

The place stank. Really stank, but she could deal with it. She could feel the base in the music pulsing through her, and felt a fleeting sympathy for the DJ's ears. She couldn't have missed the beat though. In this kind of place, any movement in time to the beat passed as dancing, even falling over drunk (which she wasn't).

There was a guy watching her. Not just watching, staring. This was where the fun began. The harsh base faded, changed beat. She loved this song. Everywhere had been playing it all fall. She settled in to the artist's dance routine without breaking step, half an eye on the guy who was watching her.

Two choruses and a verse. That was all it took to get him to approach her. She smiled again. This was gonna be even easier than last week.

"You dance real good." He said to her. Couldn't he come up with anything better than that? He'd been watching her for five minutes.

"You think?"

"Sure do."

"It's no fun dancing on your own." She pulled his body in to hers, still moving. The rest of the song was a ritual, something she had to do. She didn't particularly like the feel of his hands on her, or the feel of him under her hands, but she could deal with it. It didn't take a genius to work out the guy was only after one thing. So was she. Shame it wasn't the same thing, but life's a bitch and then you die.

As the music changed again, she stepped back, breathing hard.

"You OK?" He asked her.

"Yeah, just hot in here, and crowded."

"You got someplace else you wanna go? Someplace quieter?"

"Much quieter. Private." He tried to smile seductively at her and failed epically.

"Sounds good to me. What's your name?" He started to lead her towards the door.

"Venus."

"Mick."

"Mick." She repeated, lingering over the word. "I think you're my kind of guy."

"Venus." He growled to the back of her neck as the passed the bouncer. "You're my kind of girl. Straightforward, hot - "

"And hungry."

"What?"

"For a guy like you." Venus grinned. He had no idea how true that was. Her empty stomach growled as she strode away in to the night, Mick walking quietly beside her.

o0o0o0o

Magnus slunk forward in the half-darkness, hearing Will's footsteps behind her, clumsy as he backed up, ensuring that they had no blind side. She glanced left, then right, meeting the eyes of Ashley, then Kate. The high stacks of crates formed an aisle, down which they advanced, expecting an ambush. Behind a crate? Around a corner? On top of the crates? Attack could come from anywhere.

Kate's left fist flew to the vertical. Magnus mimicked her. All four of them froze, grasping their stunners more firmly. Kate signalled to her right. Ashley frowned and signalled in the direction in which they had been moving.

"I saw movement." Kate hissed.

"I heard him." Ashley hissed back. Magnus hesitated, then signalled as Kate had. This time, Kate took point.

None of them saw it coming in time.

Magnus heard two footfalls, had levelled her stunner, but it was upon her. Two clawed paws impacted her abdomen. The abnormal's momentum threw her down onto her back, leaving her winded. It bounded on. Three shouts of alarm. Someone else fell over. Will got up again

"Get him!" No one had put Ashley in charge, but Will and Kate sprinted after the abnormal with her. Magnus staggered to her feet and followed, hearing more shots.

The other three had cornered it. It was trying to jump on to a ten-foot stack of crates when Ashley hit it in the hind leg. It lurched sideways with a yelp as more shots struck it.

"Hold fire." Again, Ashley's command was obeyed. Magnus approached, still panting, stunner levelled. The abnormal brought one foreleg to cover its head.

"D'you give up, Hank?" Kate asked, grinning. Henry nodded.

"Henry, these things don't shoot in straight lines." Ashley complained.

"That considered," Magnus started, "well done all concerned, including you, Henry."

"Well done?" Ashley repeated. "That was not `well done`, that was a mess. We didn't follow the plan, weapons didn't work and you," She rounded on Kate "led us in to an ambush."

"Ashley..." Magnus began, sensing where this was going.

"It never used to be `well done` unless we'd subdued without injuring and no one had been hit. If this'd been real, you could be dead."

"Hey," Kate interjected, "you didn't even notice he was there. If..."

"Enough." Magnus cut Kate off before Ashley could. "Both of you. No one performed perfectly, but between us, we did catch Henry. He only winded me and, had this been real, we'd have been using normal stunners, which do shoot in straight lines." Silence. Magnus lowered her voice to normal volume and continued. "Henry, when you're ready, you said you had something you wanted me to look at. Will, I'm sure you've got something to do. Kate, go and check on the Maetotis Korrigum. If she's still curled up in a corner..."

"Thermostat up 2°. I know."

"And Ashley, I want a word with you." Henry got unsteadily to his feet, still in HAP form and moving as if very drunk. Magnus turned and began to walk away.

"Oh, Magnus." Will called after her. "You're out tonight, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. I'm meeting Elanor for dinner."

"Elanor?"

"Langley."

"Pathology lab?"

"Yes." Will looked at her curiously. "One of her sons developed an organ which allowed him to metabolise several substances which are toxic to humans. It turned cancerous when he was eleven. I removed it and he's now more or less normal, though he could drink a thermometer full of mercury without any ill effects."

"Yeah. Very normal." Will scoffed. "You'll be back..?"

"Out at eight, so I'll probably be back by ten."

"She can just keep on talking, can't she?" Magnus nodded once. "Give her my best."

"I will." Magnus turned and carried on walking, hearing Ashley's footfalls behind her.

The pair of them walked in cold silence up to Magnus's office. Ashley walked in and leant against the wall, arms folded. Magnus closed the door behind them and stared hard at her daughter.

"What?" Ashley spat.

"You know perfectly well what." Ashley looked down and shrugged.

"Do I?"

"Yes, you do. Enough of the games Ashley."

"If it had been real, Henry would have killed you."

"If it had been real, we'd have had stunners that worked properly. You'd have put Henry down as soon as he attacked."

"By which time, he'd have had you by the neck! We both know Henry's too soft to risk doing real damage."

"It's very rare to find anything skilled enough to subdue and kill in a single strike. In any case, this is not an isolated incident."

"No." Ashley looked up sharply. "No, it's not. It's not the first time Kate's screwed up, majorly."

"Ashley, we all make mistakes. That's why we do drills. You knew what I meant." Ashley just stared at her. "You take any opportunity to attack Kate. It's vindictive."

"No, it's fair."

"It's a long way from fair. You make no comment with regard to anyone else's mistakes, but if Kate makes a bad judgement, she'll hear no end of it for days. Will didn't even fire at Henry when he attacked."

"Fieldwork's not really Will's job. You just don't like have people around who are completely useless at it, which is fair enough. If Kate's job isn't fieldwork, then what the hell is?"

"Fieldwork isn't just combat. Kate's resourceful, adaptive, good at making people co-operate, didn't Henry tell you about the bank?"

"That was a big risk."

"It paid off, and since when did taking risks bother out? Ashley, no one could argue that Kate is your equal in combat. She's not, but just think how long you've been learning. You're a natural hunter who's had the opportunity to learn from a very young age. Kate's years spent as a mercenary have given her a very different skill set, tracking for example."

"Henry tracks."

"By scent, which isn't infallible. Kate's combat will improve given time."

"I don't need to hear this."Ashley pushed past Magnus and strode out in to the hallway.

"Ashley!" She didn't turn. Running after her would be futile. Ashley was faster and, once away from the EM shield, she'd teleport to God knew where. Magnus sighed.

**If anyone wants me to post a summary of Monster as a one-chapter fic, I am happy to do that. Any criticism appreciated. Next chapter will be up within a few days.**


	2. Ethyl ethanoate

"What can you do?" Magnus started at the sound of Henry's voice from behind her. He was leaning against the wall, tablet in hand.

"Not much I fear." She replied.

"I'd suggest letting them fight it out, but that wouldn't end well for Kate."

"No." Magnus gestured back in to her office, followed Henry in and sat down behind the desk. "It wouldn't." Henry took a seat opposite her, shaking his head.

"She'll get over it."

"Eventually."

"Makes the drills easier for me at the moment though."

"How so?" That was a problem.

"When they argue it slows you down, gives me more time to think. You OK, by the way?"

"I'm fine Henry."

"Good. It was just when I knocked you down..." He tailed off.

"What was it you wanted to show me?"

"Oh, yeah." Henry laid his tablet on the desk. "Virginia police are getting a bit exited. They had what looked like an animal attack in Emporia a week ago, then another one in Fredricksburg. This is the interesting bit: both bodies look like wolf-size animal kills. There've been rangers out, but there's no sign of wolves or coyotes or anything. Both victims were males in their early twenties who'd been out on the town on a Friday night. Both killed in woodland, but neither had an obvious reason to go there. It might be nothing, but..."

"But it's certainly interesting. There's not much to go on here, but if it develops, let me know. The Friday detail is unusual, but it could just be a coincidence. Look in to it if you have time, otherwise..."

"OK. Got it Doc." Henry got up and left, still limping slightly.

Magnus glanced at her watch. She'd better go and change now, if she was going out at eight.

o0o0o0o

"Please, one night." The girl could hear the pleading note in her own voice. "I'll pay it tomorrow. I swear. Trade's been bad this week, just give me a shot."

"You've had too many chances. Get lost." The landlady answered coldly.

"I got nowhere else to go, I'll be sleeping rough."

"Aint my problem. Out."

"This part of town? I'll get raped!"

"That's your job, isn't it?" The girl flushed

"That's different?"

"How? You get paid? I don't wanna do my job for no pay either. Get lost."

"Excuse me." The calm, deep European accent made the girl turn. A tall, bald man strode out of the shadows, long leather coat flapping slightly. "If I have understood the situation here, I do believe we can help one another." His blue eyes settled on hers. "You are looking for a way to pay your rent, I am looking for company."

"Yeah." The girl replied, relief flooding her.

"How much?" Was he German? British? French? Russian? She couldn't tell one European accent from another.

"Fifty dollars." He nodded slightly.

"That sounds agreeable to me." The girl nodded, smiling.

"You aint doing no `business` here." The landlady butted in. "This aint a brothel."

"No matter." The man replied. " If you will..." He gestured for her to follow him. "I hope you don't object to a walk." The girl shook her head. This man was a gift. He'd give her her rent, probably let her stay the night, and she'd even have a few dollars over.

o0o0o0o

Ten past ten. Not too bad, by Elanor's standards, Magnus thought as she strode out along the street. She'd be home in twenty minutes.

Phone. She stopped and withdrew it from her bag.

"Magnus?"

"Will."

"Magnus, we got trouble. Squid and Razor both called saying they saw a tall, bald Britt leading a working girl across town. Vertical scar on one cheek."

"John." A cold fist clenched in Magnus's chest.

"Yeah. CCTV's just shown him leading the girl in to a deliveries yard. There's no coverage in there. It's 2 blocks away from you. Ashley could get there and get the girl out."

"He'd have warning, unless Ashley knew exactly where the girl was. He'd teleport away with the girl and kill her."

"Are you armed?"

"Beretta, but I'd have to get close to do damage."

"Could you try talking him down?"

"I could try, but it hasn't worked in the past.

"All you'd need to do would be to hold him off until we got there with tranqs or something."

"Worth a try." Magnus conceded, hiding her fear.

"We'll be there in ten." Will hung up. Magnus drew a calming breath, trying to forget what had happened the last time she'd tried this, replaced her phone and drew her pistol. She could afford no fear, no mistakes. All that stood between the girl and death was her. She could not fail.

**Appologies for how short this chapter is. Realistically, it could be a week before you get another one, but I'd hope four days.**


	3. Propyl propanoate

**I have a summary of the prequel to this. If two people ask me to, I will post it.**

**Warning: vulgar language in this chapter.**

"John!" The sound of a woman's voice behind him made him turn his head. He knew that voice; sharp, purposeful, the distinctive English accent, so rare here. He knew before he saw her who she was. Helen. Striding out of the shadows, face tense, afraid, afraid of him, her pistol pointed squarely between his eyes. Damn her. Could she not leave him alone? He'd gone too long without. He was losing control, no, he'd lost it. He'd chosen a victim, he couldn't stop now. He showed none of this in his face, a face well able to lie.

"Helen." His voice was level, smooth. He slipped his hand almost imperceptibly on to the whore's arm as he spoke, hearing her gasp at the sight of the gun, barely suppressing his own gasp of anticipation. His gentle touch was ready to become a vice if Helen did anything rash.

"Step away from her John, and keep your hands where I can see them." She was so tense, so scared, it was almost laughable. Why was she doing this?

"Introductions:" He purred. "How improper of you, Helen, to come and... interrupt us without even asking the name of this charming young lady." The sarcasm was entirely lost on the whore. A muscle twitched in Helen's jaw.

"Oh." The whore's course accent didn't make John look back at her. He kept his eyes on Helen. "I... I'm Chardonnay."

"And this is Helen." John indicated her with his free hand. "A long-standing... friend of mine." He implied as much as he could with that one, pre-penultimate word.

"I'll... I'll be going then."

"Stay. I insist." John purred, tightening his grip on the bint's arm by a fraction, but not enough to panic her, not yet.

"Stop playing games John. Get away from her." Helen was level with them now, as able to shoot the whore as him, not that she would. John didn't respond to the threat. Helen's eyes hardened.

A bullet tore between him and the whore. He jerked away, releasing her. Helen was between them before he'd comprehended what had happened. She was good.

"Back up." She ordered, the gun now pointed at his legs. He wouldn't put it past her to maim him. He withdrew to ten feet away. The difference in how the two women showed, and tried not to show, their fear was amusing. The whore looked on the verge of hysterics. She was gasping shakily from behind Helen who, by contrast, just stood still. She was breathing hard, but steadily. Only her eyes betrayed her fear, and she would bear it out like a cornered wolf. If she fired, her aim would be good. She would fire if he attacked her or the whore. All he had to do was get round her gun arm. His knife was in his hand. All he had to do was get past her gun and cut her throat, then the whore was his. His eyes swept Helen's neck, finding her pulse points, where the life-blood, the jugular skimmed the surface. He could do it. He could kill her. He could kill her now.

He just... didn't want to. He didn't want to see her in pain or dying. He couldn't hurt her. `Long-standing friend` he'd said. John felt himself twitch as the memory of what they'd had, so long ago, jarred against what he was about to do. Whispers, voices in the dark, her body under his hands, his body under her hands, what could, shouldn't have, should, couldn't have been. That was the price the thing inside him had made him pay. Her. He needed to get her to back off, or she'd get hurt.

"Get away from her Helen; you know what you're dealing with. You know you can't stop me."

"You don't have to do this John." She sounded as scared as she looked.

"Why?" He asked lightly. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't murder the whore."

"Murder?" The whore breathed. It took a few seconds for the stupid hussy to realise what that meant. The fear in her eyes doubled and she began to scream. High, shuddering, hysterical screams.

Their sound was a drug. John never decided to move, his legs bore him towards Helen and the slut as if of their own accord.

As soon as the screams started, Helen twisted where she stood and slapped the whore hard about the face. The sound hung in the momentary silence as she turned back to face him.

"Back." She ordered. He was barely six feet from her now. He took one step back. Helen backed away in turn, pushing the stumbling hussy behind her. This was killing him. He was so close, but so far. He felt the rage, the bloodlust that had to precede a kill, his breath shook with it. But he couldn't kill Helen, not... She had to move.

"Get out of the way Helen." His voice shook like his breath. "You can't save her."

"She's a being, John, a sentient being. She's not worth any less than you or me."

"I can't agree. She's nothing. She's nothing next to you. I can't always win Helen. It's a matter of choosing which battles I fight." He spoke the truth. His bloodlust waxed and waned, but now it was almost uncontrollable. He had to kill. He knew why, knew the monster inside him was making him feel this way, but it made no difference. He still needed to kill.

"So you're just giving in?" She challenged. He didn't respond. She shook her head. "I dared to hope, you know. After... Clearly, I was wrong, as if I needed more proof than the Cabal, Cambodia... You just like killing now." No. He didn't. Even after a hundred and twenty-two years, he still didn't really sleep, fearing their eyes, their terror, the fear of closing death. Their fading gasps still haunted him, but he had to kill. He'd gone too far to stop now.

"Helen, I don't want to do this, I..."

"Then don't." She cut him off softly. "Just don't."

For a long moment, they stared at each other, desperate hope in her eyes, torment in his. Then Helen took her finger off the trigger, holding the gun by the barrel now. Then it hit him. He needed to kill, but not right now. Here and now, what he needed was to be with her. She was laying herself open, trusting him. He wouldn't betray that trust. Not here, not now.

As one, they lowered their weapons. Whose decision that had been, John neither knew nor cared. The rage, the bloodlust, was receding. He'd have thought it impossible. He'd chosen a victim, been ready to kill, she'd have been dead by now, if not for Helen. And now he could stop.

As they straightened, the knife and the gun lying on the pitted asphalt now, Helen began to approach him, relief breaking over her face, fierce, cold beauty warming, softening as she smiled. Her breathing was still heavy from the release of fear. It didn't detract from her at all.

She drew level with him. He realised he was breathing as hard as she was.

"I stopped." He felt a disbelieving smile spread over his face. "I chose a victim and... and I stopped."

"You've no idea how scared I was you just wouldn't, that you'd kill me to get to her." She stepped closer, making him turn so that the wench was no longer in his direct line of sight, making him choose. He'd already chosen Helen. He still couldn't believe he'd stopped.

"I could never hurt you, Helen." And he meant it. It had been a long time since they'd been lovers. A lot had changed, but not the way he felt about her. He knew what he was, knew she couldn't love him, knew he should let go. He just couldn't. Helen broke eye contact for a heartbeat, drew breath and began to speak.

"John, if you..."

Gunshot.

**Reviews much appreciated, however critical.**


	4. Butyl butanoate

**Enjoy. **

Gunshot. Helen's cry of pain. John's second knife drew his hand like a magnet. He felt it drag as if through flesh as he turned to face the sound. Helen fell gasping. The whore. The whore stood holding Helen's gun in shaking hands. A second bullet tore past him to ricochet off a bin, ringing a knell. Rage possessed him. He started to run. The whore had time to begin to scream, to fire another futile shot past him, to know what he was about to do, before he was upon her.

Her hurting Helen had provoked his rage, now her scream called to his bloodlust. His right hand seized the gun, though it held his knife, and pulled it from her clutching hands. His left hand flew to her neck. He heard Helen's shout, but did not understand it. All he saw now was the kill. Close, hot imminent. She was trying to pull his hands away from her neck. He looked in to her eyes, long and deep, as her intoxicating screams subsided, giving way to shallow, rasping, frantic gasps. Her fear was blind terror now, the terror of a rat in a dog's jaws. He felt her struggling grow weaker, the frenzied joy of the kill flooded him. Beneath his hands, her life was ebbing away.

Her struggling ceased. He moved his arms to her back as her legs gave way under her. He lowered her to the ground. He slid the knife to his left hand. Always left handed. He caressed her limp neck with the flat of the blade. The blade quarter turned in his hand. He didn't hesitate.

Blood. Vivid, red blood seeped from the slash in the whore's neck. The rage seeped away with it. He was almost sated, almost. But something else was intruding. There was something else.

The girl was dead. It was over. Magnus had failed, like she had in London all those years ago. Her own blood was pooling, beginning to congeal around her fingers. How much had she lost? The darkness hovered at the edges of her mind. John was still crouched over the girl. What if he looked round? He'd turn on her. He wouldn't leave a bleeding, defenceless woman. She'd seen with the empaths the effect blood had on him.

He lifted his head. For a moment, neither of them breathed. Then, he straightened, turned and ran at her. She winced hopelessly back. She couldn't stand, her gun was beside the girl's body. She was defenceless. He crouched down beside her.

"Helen, it's alright." What in..? She stared up at him, defiant. If he was going to kill her, she was going to fight. "I won't hurt you, Helen." She might almost have believed him, if not for the body lying ten feet away. But Magnus was still breathing. "You're wounded. I'm trying to help." If there was any chance he'd regained control before...

"Her." She looked towards where the girl lay. "I'll live, John. Help her." His eyes froze over at once.

"It's too late for her. Let me see." He reached for her right hand, which clutched at the bullet wound in her right leg. If her blood got on his hands...

"Stop it John." She hissed. "Go." She couldn't hold him off.

"I won't." He spoke softly, almost as if... "It's alright. I won't leave you Helen." As if she'd asked him not to go, as if she'd asked for protection. He slid his hand on to her leg, feeling. Magnus repressed a shudder. Fear? Pain? Something older? What did he think he was doing?

"No, John, they're coming." How long would the others take to reach her? She'd not held him off for long enough to save the girl, but...

"Helen, listen to me." He looked hard in to her eyes, sky blue boring in to her, demanding silence. He looked lucid. That was what she didn't understand. "You've lost blood and you're going to keep losing for as long as the bullets in there." Oh dear God, he wasn't going to...

"John, no. Ashley..."

"How is she?" He cut her off sharply, palpating her leg more firmly now. Basic procedure. In the absence of analgesic or anaesthetic, talk to the patient. Magnus gasped. His thumb had moved the bullet inside her leg. She bit her mouth. Screaming was another trigger. If she screamed, he'd kill her. "How's Ashley?" He repeated more firmly.

"Recovering." She hissed, twisting her head so that she couldn't see him or the girl, deciding to play along. "It changed her, in more ways than one." Magnus stifled a cry. New pain, sharp, cold, clawed at the wound in her leg. He'd put his knife in the wound. Darkness followed in the pain's wake. No. She had to fight, had to stay conscious.

"I'm sorry Helen." She heard his voice higher than she should have. Pain. Through it, he sounded afraid. "I have to do this."

This time, she couldn't stay silent. She emitted a harsh cry, lifting her shoulders a few inches off the asphalt, only to fall back, sending pain racing through her wounds again. She couldn't even hold herself up, and if she tried to move her leg, she'd end up with knife wounds there as well.

"I'm sorry." He repeated. "There's nothing I can do to make this easier." Her breath came in fast, sharp hisses now. It was all she could do not to struggle, scream.

Twice more, she cried out. Twice more, she expected to feel hands, steel at her neck. Twice more, he didn't respond. She gasped as the pain welled up again, didn't exhale, just held on. It was all there was left to do. Just hold on. Suffer and be still. Then it passed. She moaned softly. It was over, the worst of it anyway. She forced back the blackness again.

"It's done." He said. She didn't need to be told. Cautiously, she looked back at him, flinching and hissing in pain again as he pressed one hand to her wound.

"Go." She breathed. "For the love of God, go." He didn't respond. "John, go." She repeated. Again, no response. He reached for her left arm, which she held against her bleeding abdomen. He lifted her wrist, pressing his fingers in to the depression between her radius and her tendon, looking for a pulse. It was a moment before he realised what clung to the skin of her arm. He twisted her arm gently, towards the light, not quite believing yet. Blood. It took him only a moment to see why. She followed his gaze, feeling the movement pull at the second wound: a long, horizontal slash across her abdomen.

"How did..?" Realisation dawned in his eyes as he spoke. She'd been close to him when the girl had fired. Very close. Close enough that when he'd turned, knife in hand...

He looked back at her, fear spreading across his features. Not rage. Not bloodlust. Fear, pain.

"Helen, I..."

Tyres. Behind her. She looked round. Headlights blinding. Two doors opening. Two silhouettes.

"Get away from her!" Ashley. Ashley shouting at John. A gunshot. "Get away!" Fire flashed beside her. Again, on the left, a few feet away. Ashley whipped round and fired, but too late.

"Where'd he go?" Kate shouted, twisting one way and the other, expecting attack. Ashley ignored her, dropping to a crouch beside Magnus.

"Mum." Magnus looked back at her, fighting the blackness. Ashley's eyes found both wounds at once.

"We need to get back." Will's voice. "Not just for the EM shield." Ashley nodded, eyes now on Magnus's leg.

"Mum, is that a gunshot wound?"

"Yes." Magnus hissed. The darkness was pressing in on her, it was getting harder to fight.

"Did it break your leg?"

"Don't think so." Ashley nodded breathing hard.

"Kate, keep watch for him. Mum, can you stand?"

"Doubt it." She was sliding. She couldn't hold on.

"OK, Will, get over here. Help me..." The blackness closed in.

**There is a lovely blue bit of text right below this.**

**Click on it!**


	5. Pentyl pentanoate

**I think this is the slowest story I've ever posted. I can only appologise and say that I have no idea if or when my pace will improve. Enjoy.**

"How's she doing?" Will pushed open the door to the Or, Ashley and the Big Guy looked up at him.

"Well enough." The Big Guy grunted, looking back down at the wound in Magnus's abdomen, which he was stitching. Will's eyes flicked round. Diazepam by the instrument tray. The Big Guy had sedated Magnus while he worked. Saline drip, not blood. Ordinary O type blood didn't do Magnus much good, that was a substitute and it would be a waste to use Magnus's own blood while she was still bleeding. Ashley holding Magnus's other wrist, watching her pulse. "She was lucky."

"Not what I'd call it." Ashley muttered.

"This wound hasn't got to her organs, gunshot wound only got her vein, left the artery. Bullet was out when she got here."

"What?" Ashley interjected

"No exit wound, definitely a gunshot wound, but no bullet."

"That's impossible." Ashley said, shaking her head.

"It happened." The Big Guy replied. "Capillary refill?" Ashley looked down again, pressing the tip of Magnus's finger hard.

"Bit more than two seconds."

"Improving."

"Could she have taken the bullet out herself?" Ashley asked. Will shook his head.

"You saw how bad she was when we got to her. She wasn't even putting subject nouns in her sentances. Anyway, with what? She only had a pistol. Henry and I found it, by the way, next to another patch of blood ten feet away. Fired three times."

"Yeah, but who by?" Ashley asked. "Mum or Druitt?"

"Or someone else."

"Like who?" Ashley asked dismissively.

"I don't know, I just... don't think it was Druitt who shot her."

"There was no one else there."

"That we saw."

"Didn't you and Henry look properly?"

"Yeah, and we bleached all the blood, so no one can DNA test it, but whoever else was there would have had time to run. And shooting's not Druitt's MO."

"This," Ashley pointed at the abdominal wound, which the Big Guy had nearly finished stitching, "is a knife wound. That is his MO." Will shook his head.

"Magnus'll probably be able to tell us when she wakes up.

"And what happened to the girl. That's what this was all for."Ashley said dejectedly. "Maybe she got a chance to run when Druitt went for Mum." Will nodded silently. There were gaping holes in that theory, but Ashley was saying it to comfort herself. She wanted to believe something good had come out of it all. Will didn't think so somehow. Yes, Druitt had been crouched over Magnus, but he hadn't had a knife in his hand. It didn't look like he'd been attacking her. And Jack the Ripper had strangled, then cut throat, then the abdomen. Magnus hadn't been strangled and her neck was intact, and she'd been shot, which didn't fit either. And then there was the dark shape on the ground, the thing Druitt had gone to, then vanished, taking it with him. The thing about the right size to be a body.

o0o0o0o

"How the hell did you do that?" Ashley asked incredulously. "You can't reason with him."

"Apparently you can." Magnus replied shortly. It was nine in the morning. She'd only woken an hour ago, due in part, no doubt to Bigfoot's tendency to be a little generous with opoids, but she was lucid and felt no pain from her wounds, so she had no inclination to complain.

"But that's obviously not it." Will added. He and Ashley were sitting close to her, demanding a recount of the previous night's events. "I mean, it's an achievement to get a serial killer to stop at all, I'd like to know how you did it, but..." That wasn't information Magnus was willing to impart. That, like many things was between her and John.

"You're right, that's not all." She replied, choosing to ignore the latter half of what Will had said. "Once he'd put his knife down, I went over him and his focus stayed on me, not the girl. I really thought I'd managed, but..." Magnus paused, trying to remember through the haze of pain and fear. "The girl must have picked up my gun and fired it at us."

"Probably at Druitt," Will put in. "not at you."

"But she missed." Ashley concluded coldly. "And got you."

"Bad luck." Will remarked.

"Or good luck that it was only a flesh wound." Magnus said. Bigfoot had already told her the extent of her injuries.

"So then you went down?" Will asked. Ashley maintained a stony silence.

"Not immediately. John lost control at once. He got hold of a second knife-"

"So he was never unarmed?" Ashley interjected, her voice marking the start of the cold, billowing anger Magnus knew she could sustain for days.

"And you get at me for taking risks!"

"In any case. He turned to face the girl, knife in hand and cut me, but I don't think he meant to." Magnus continued, ignoring Ashley's snort of disbelief. "He wasn't looking at me and he seemed genuinely shocked that he'd done it."

"He didn't notice?" Will asked incredulously.

"I don't think he could see or hear me at all at that moment. The rest is a little blurred."

"Understandable." Will commented. "You'd been shot. What can you remember?"

"I..." Magnus hesitated, clutching at details like water in her hands. "I tried to call out to him but he didn't respond, so I'm not sure if I did. Normally I'd have done something, but..." Magnus stopped, the powerlessness she'd felt as the girl had writhed against John's hands, died there, returning.

"There was nothing you could have done." Will said gently, as if reading her mind. "You couldn't even get up. He might well have done you more damage if you'd tried. We could have found two bodies when we got there." Ashley remained silent. "I still don't understand why there was no bullet in your leg when we got there."

"John." Magnus replied simply. Ashley gave her an incredulous look. "He came back to me, just left the girl and..." She faltered, seeking words for John's bizarre behaviour. "He behaved as if there had been no interlude, as if I'd only just been shot, but was in no further danger."

"What, trying to reassure you and stuff?" Will sounded as unnerved as she had been.

"Yes."

"So it was like he... forgot he'd killed the girl?"

"No." Magnus said, remembering. "He... He knew he'd done it..."

"But what?" Ashley cut in. "He just didn't care?"

"So he took the bullet out of you?" Will spared her the necessity of answering Ashley.

"Yes."

"And he didn't make any move to harm you?"

"No."

"That's... interesting." Will remarked. "As a serial killer, I'd expect him to either bolt or kill you, but as Druitt... you just don't seem to be able to kill each other, do you?"

"With a parasite/host complex, you should always try to contain the host and remove the parasite before killing the host." Magnus cited defensively. That was her reason for killing him. Nothing else.

"And he won't kill you either, which is lucky." Will didn't challenge her. "So after he took the bullet out of you, we showed up and he ran."

"He found out that he'd cut me first. He was genuinely surprised by that, I think." Ashley threw her a disgruntled look.

"Then we showed up." Will repeated.

"Yes."

Ashley got to her feet and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Magnus called after her daughter's retreating back.

"To clear the main gate." She replied, not looking back. "There was snow last night, so..." She left.

"She'll get over it." Will spoke, again, as if reading Magnus's thoughts. "Eventually."


	6. Hexyl hexanoate

**I'm sorry about the length of time this has taken me. I sincerely hope last week will prove to have been the craziest for the next six months. I will try to do better.**

* * *

><p>"Magnus?" Will's voice from the doorway. She looked up, smiling at him. "How are you doing?"<p>

"Better." She replied truthfully. "Being able to walk, albeit with crutches, three days after a gunshot wound isn't to be taken for granted."

"Are you still on Morphine?"

"Codeine." Will looked at her uncomfortably. Magnus looked back at him, waiting.

"Look, Magnus, I just got an e-mail from Elanor Langley, which she said she'd copied to you." Will broke off again, looking hesitant. "She... she said they had a case she thinks might be our area."

"Which would be..?" Magnus said, biting back the image of John closing his hands over the girl's throat.

Will sighed.

"Demolition workers found a body near the condemned building they were about to start work on. Female, early twenties, skinny, black hair, it's hard to tell with the cold, but they think she's been dead about three days." Three days. John. The girl. Will, it seemed, had already reached this conclusion. "And if you need more proof, preliminary exam shows evidence of strangulation, deep, deliberate knife wounds to the neck (AKA throat cut) and abdominal mutilation. Sounds like Druitt's work to me." Magnus lowered her head, closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

"A perfect example."

"Elanor asked for you, said it looked like our kind of thing. I'll make an excuse for you." Magnus shook her head slightly.

"I'll go." For a second, Will just looked at her.

"Oh, come on Magnus, no way. You're injured, and what can we get out of it? We know it was Druitt."

"We _suspect _it was Druitt, Will. We don't know." Magnus cut across him firmly. "What if it's not the same girl? We could have a second killer on the loose. In any case, you usually can't keep me away from this sort of thing. The last thing we need is rumours of my involvement among the police force."

"How do we explain your injuries?"

"Elanor knows my work is dangerous. I'll have under-sedated something, or similar."

"Magnus..."

"I have to go." She said, with a calm she did not feel. "You may join me or not, as you choose." Will sighed.

"There's no point in arguing with you, is there?" Magnus smiled

"Haven't you learned that yet?"

"Helen, Will." Elanor turned to face them as the metal doors opened away from Will's hand. He held the door for Magnus as she limped in ahead of him, crutches bearing most of her weight. Cold air, bearing the smell of disinfectant, rushed to meet them. Elanor's eyes flew to Magnus's practically useless leg. "Helen, what..?"

"Occupational hazard." Magnus cut her off blithely. "Carelessness on my part, but no matter. It'll heal soon enough." Will had to admit, she lied well. It was simple, as much detail as she'd ever give regarding her work and plausible.

"I hope it does."

"D'you keep Vic's in here?" Will asked quickly, changing the subject, which wouldn't arouse suspicion coming from him.

"For amateurs." Elanor grinned and threw him a small tub. The overpowering smell engulfed him as he applied it to his upper lip, and Elanor continued. "Shall we get on?"

"Yes, lets."

"She's over there." Elanor gestured to the far end of the room. "We're trying to keep her out of harm's way, or out of the press's way."

"Shovelling snow in a blizzard." Will remarked, hanging back to stay with Magnus, who was slower. "They always find out in the end." Elanor shrugged, pulling back the cloth which covered the table. Will braced himself.

There was no sign of decay, only frost damage, on the girl's skinny, naked body. The wounds were arranged exactly as he'd expected; the tell-tale bruising on the jaw line, just above the single, deep slash, then the abdominal wounds, a tangle of jagged, violent cuts.

"We can ignore those." Magnus somehow managed to gesture to a collection of bite wounds in the girl's lower leg, while gloving up and balancing on one and a bit legs. "That damage is several hours post mortem." She sounded calm, her tone was level, words detached, but the unnatural pause before the word `mortem`, her reluctance to examine the torso wounds, Druitt's hallmarks, told Will otherwise. It was the girl she'd seen him kill, the girl she'd tried to save and she was suffering for it. Elanor obviously hadn't noticed. Her eyes never left the body.

"Fox or stray dog." She said, as much to herself as to Magnus. "Now, we know she was strangled, then had her throat cut, or else it wouldn't have bruised, but we don't know if the abdominal wounds were pre or post mortem."

"Blood pooling can tell us that, once we open her up."

"Yeah, but can you give me a hand IDing the weapon first?" Will had been afraid of that. It meant long, fiddly and very close examination of the wounds. He braced himself and bent over the girl's partially severed neck.

Ashley paced on, footfalls hard, rapid, eyes up, alert, circling the police station. She was only there because she didn't want to leave Mum unprotected. Will didn't count. Druitt could still be around. They didn't know.

This whole thing was a mess. Why hadn't Mum let her go after Druitt in the first place? She, at least, would have had the guts to actually shoot him, before he killed the girl. How could Mum have been so stupid? Druitt was dangerous. Mum couldn't handle him on her own. Why hadn't she just shot him?

The hair on the nape of her neck stood up. She was being watched. She turned sharply. Milling pedestrians. No one she recognised. She began to run, back the way she'd come. Still no one more than glanced at her, no faces, stares she knew.

The feeling of eyes on her didn't fade. It wouldn't be the first time she'd had this since... But she couldn't assume it was just her. She slipped in to an alleyway, and immediately behind a skip. She waited. Her pursuer's patience against hers. She curled one finger over the trigger of her Desert Eagle. It couldn't be long. There were ways out of this alley, he'd have to look, then she had him.

She waited. Until her legs burned from her crouch, she waited. No one, nothing followed her. Two possibilities: One, somehow, who or whatever was following her could see through bricks, infa-red vision or something. Two, she was being creeped out by nothing, by the shadows that followed her everywhere now.

She slunk forwards, still crouching, pistol held before her.

Fire. Her pistol was jerked from her hands. Fire again, then behind her. She spun round, fists raised.

Druitt. She should have known. He stood too far away to charge, holding her gun. At least he was real, she wasn't going mad.

"What?" She growled at him, looking for something, anything, she could use to her advantage. "Am I next on your hit list?"

"Ashley," his voice was low, full of desperation. Whatever he wanted, she wasn't going to play ball. "I have no intention of harming you."

"Oh yeah." She said coldly. "You came up behind me and grabbed my gun. How did I not guess that?"

"Ashley please." She could teleport out. If she had a moment to think, to prepare. "I have to know." His voice was actually shaking now. A frightened opponent is a lot more dangerous than a confident one. "Helen." She needed a few seconds, that was it. Then she'd go. "Is she alright? Where is she?"

"In the morgue." Ashley spat, twisting in to the void.

Rooftops, thirty feet above Druitt, she watched him like she'd seen a hawk do in Alaska when she was fifteen. He hadn't moved. He was frozen, clear cut against the snow. If she teleported to just behind him, she could grab him round the neck, get her gun back, the fight would be over before it had started. Her gun fell from his hand. He didn't bend to pick it up, didn't even look at it. She could see he was panting, even from this high up. Was he having a seizure or something? Fire flashed and he was gone. Where? Ashley cast her eyes around quickly. There was no sign of him.

If he was watching (and she had to assume he was), her gun was bait in a trap, but she couldn't leave her Desert Eagle down there for anyone to find. If she teleported down and grabbed her gun, she could be out again in three seconds. Was that enough time for him to teleport in do enough damage to stop her from getting out? Maybe. She'd take the chance.


	7. Heptyl heptanoate

**Warning! Major Angst!**

**Also, I will be without internet from tonight to Tuesday, so Merry Christmas one and all.**

**Factoid: A Y incision is used in pathology to examine the inside of a cadaver's torso. It is an incision parallel to and beneath both clavicles (collar bones) and down the sternum (breast bone) so the skin can be peeled back.**

"Ok." Recap." Elanor straightened up. Will heard Magnus hiss softly in pain as she did the same. "Clothing suggests loose morals, possibly a prostitute. Killed by strangulation, main blood vessels of the neck subsequently severed, severe abdominal trauma pre or post mortem. Carrying no money, no keys, no phone, no ID."

"Or the killer took them." Will put in, doubting that Druitt had. "If there's no ID, it's harder for us to find MO patterns. No one who fits the description has been reported missing, have they?"

"No." Elanor confirmed.

"So we've got no idea and no way of telling who she was." Magnus said.

"Any ideas on the murderer, Will?" Elanor asked hopefully. Will exhaled, wondering what he could say that'd be hard to argue with, but didn't point to Druitt.

"OK... bruises on the jaw line are far apart, so big hands, probably male."

"I've never heard of a woman killing prostitutes." Elanor commented.

"First time for everything, and we don't know she was one." Will replied, still thinking hard. "Not very... tidily done," he gestured at the cadaver's stomach, "so that could mean anger driven, a revenge kill, something against this one woman, or someone else and she was a scapegoat. The abdominal wounds were inflicted with a lot of force too. Probably youngish killer with few if any respected qualifications."

"And did he get on with his mother?" Elanor asked, grinning.

"Hell no." Will replied at once.

o0o0o0o

No. She wasn't. She couldn't be. John's familiar surroundings materialized around him. He staggered. He couldn't accept it. She couldn't be. She couldn't be. Helen. Helen, who bowed to no one and nothing. Helen, who had stood and fought every bond placed on her for a hundred and fifty years. Helen, who time could never conquer. Helen, who never yielded a cause, even in the darkest moments when all hope had faded. Helen, who'd endured so much more than she'd ever deserved. Helen, who he'd laughed with on warm summer evenings two lifetimes ago. Helen, who'd given him joy unlike anything he'd ever known. Helen, who's still believed in him, who'd dared to hope he could still change.

What had that hope cost her?

She was dead.

The knife in his hand.

In one moment, one thoughtless, stupid moment, he'd taken from her what time could not. Her life. He'd taken her life. He'd killed her.

The first, the bravest, the greatest of The Five.

She was dead. By his hand. The hand that had slain so many, but never her. Somehow, he'd always endured. She elicited a resistance in him unlike any other. But ultimately, it had done nothing. This was one atrocity for which he could not blame the beast. It hadn't been in rage. There was no veil of hate between him and the unbearable blood. It had been passive, an action of his very essence. The fragment he'd held on to over the past months, what he'd seen as himself, was slipping away, if anything remained at all.

How could it? He'd murdered the only woman he'd ever truly loved. If he wasn't a monster, what the hell was he?

Glass glistened in the half-light, like the kind, clear liquid within, the needles next to it. It beckoned like a beacon in a storm. Oblivion, anything, could only be better than this. He didn't need much, just enough to escape from the world for a while, to retreat to the dark, far reaches of his mind.

John stretched out a hand towards it, without ever deciding to, took a step closer, then faltered, his mind drawn inescapably back to the blood on his hands, the sweet, fiery blood. Helen's blood.

John cried out. A low, bestial moan of insurmountable pain. The bottle glistened before him again. He knew well enough what its contents would give him; retreat, escape. But he couldn't. He'd not deserved any better than this.

He had to be with her. One last time, before they moved her body. He had to go back, he had to see her. He just had to. He let his hand fall, away from the bottle. He sighed softly, closed his eyes, and was gone.

o0o0o0o

"Shees, look at her liver." Will heard Elanor, but completely ignored her. He was facing stoically away. He was fine pre-Y incision, he was fine post-Y incision. He was not fine during Y incision. He had no inclination to watch Magnus and Elanor pulling the skin off a cadaver's torso.

"Looks like early cirrhosis, doesn't it?" Magnus remarked. "And she's only young, she can't be twenty-five."

"When you think how much she must have drunk..." There was a moment's silence.

"You can come back now Will, we've finished." Will turned round, breathing slowly and handing Magnus her crutches. She'd somehow managed to stay upright while half-skinning the body on one-and-a-bit legs, but the effort had obviously tired her.

Reluctantly, Will turned his eyes on the body. The internal organs were in place, but a hell of a mess, and the liver was the wrong colour.

"They are all there, aren't they?" Elanor asked. Magnus nodded. Will relaxed a little. Stealing bits of victims had been part of Druitt's hallmark in Whitechapel.

"No sign of haemorrhage." He said. "So the abdominal wounds are post mortem."

"And just so you know," Elanor interjected, "vaginal swabs came back clean, we checked her over with a UV light, no associated trauma, nothing. She wasn't raped in any sense of the word. We can't use DNA to trace him." Another strange thing about the Whitechapel murders.

"Well," Magnus straightened a little. "I don't think there's much left to find here. Thank you for letting us know."

"Any time." Elanor smiled. "Thanks for your help."

The double doors swung open. Ashley, looking tense.

"How are you doing?"

"Done." Magnus replied, then she noticed Ashley's face. "Sweetheart, are you alright?"

"Yeah. Fine." Will couldn't help but think that meant `Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional`. "Just wanna get back." Magnus didn't believe her either.

"Well, we can go now." She said calmly, dropping her gloves in to the bin after Will's.

On the hundred metre walk to the back door, the door to the car park where Magnus had given him her card what felt like a lifetime ago, Ashley would not stand still. She looked continually around, her hand hovering over her gun, expecting attack. What had scared her like this? Will opened the door and held it for Magnus. He'd try to get answers out of Ashley in the car.

o0o0o0o

The wind bit at him as he crouched, watching the back door of the police station from the opposite rooftop, where Helen's body was. He needed a way in. He needed someone to open that door so he could see inside and teleport in. However long that would be, he'd wait. He had to do this.

John didn't know how long he waited, 'till his hands were as numb as his heart, before the door opened. Doctor Zimmerman, Helen's right hand. Was he their leader now? Ashley followed him as he held the door, eyes darting, looking for him. Still Doctor Zimmerman held the door.

No. It couldn't be. But it was. Helen Magnus emerging in to the daylight. Her left leg barely touched the ground, she bore her weight on crutches, her face fixed in pain every step she descended from the door, but she was alive, stoically, determinedly alive. Wounded in battle, fighting on, she was more like Athena than ever.

Anger rose in him like bile. Ashley had told him she was dead. She'd lied to cause him pain. His knife drew his hand again. No. He was not going to do that. That was the beast, not him. He hadn't killed Helen, hadn't come very close by the look of her. He could fight this. He had to. Ashley was his child, for all she resented him, she was his flesh and blood. But what had she made him endure? He felt cold steel under his fingers.

The glistening bottle rose before his eyes, unbidden. Its contents silenced him and the beast. If he didn't retreat and take it soon, someone was going to pay heavily. He had to go, now. With an effort, he reached in to the void.


	8. Octly octanoate

**Please note the time gap. Enjoy.**

Two months later

Kate twisted away from a violent kick, threw a desperate punch back, felt her fist knocked aside. She ducked another flying fist, then felt another foot behind her feet, pulling them out from under her. She fell hard onto her back, saw the black boot rise over her abdomen. She rolled to one side, into her attacker's other leg. It bought her maybe half a second. Her attacker's supporting leg bent and a hard kneecap impacted Kate's stomach. She grunted in pain, saw her attacker pull back a fist.

"OK!" Kate shouted. "OK, I give up!" Ashley got to her feet and pulled Kate to hers. "I said I'm not playing hardball against you yet." Ashley looked at her.

"That was softball."

"Wasn't for me. You're a ninja. You never get your ass kicked by anyone."

"Not true." Ashley replied calmly.

"When you were a vampire doesn't count." Kate replied. "And neither does being Taeserd." She added, remembering what Henry had told her about his and Ashley's assault on the Cabal HQ.

"I got beaten a couple of months before that." She said coldly.

"Who by?"

"Druitt." Kate fell silent, wary. This topic could make Ashley flip like a light switch, then stay in a huff for days. After very careful thought, Kate spoke again.

"You'll get another shot at him." Ashley nodded, not looking at Kate.

"He got away." Kate felt as if Ashley was just talking, not talking to her. "He always runs. He won't stay still long enough to fight me. He just teleports. Bloody coward." Ashley turned and walked out. Kate raised her hands in frustration. That was so typical of Ashley. You never knew where you stood with her. One minute, she was fine, the next... this. Hank said that reading Ashley was a life's work, at least as hard as reading Magnus, unless Magnus was trying to be unreadable. Will said Ashley was worse than she had been, he'd put it down to PTSD or something. Kate followed Ashley out. She had work to do before Magnus, Ashley and Will left for Moscow. The 10 hour time lag, or whatever it was, didn't sound fun to Kate.

o0o0o0o

Will strode towards the entrance hall, he was looking forward to this trip. Russia was on his list of countries he wanted a look at. He stopped abruptly in the doorway. Walking in at this point would be a bad idea. Magnus stood with her hands on Ashley's shoulders, speaking to her in a low voice. Ashley's eyes were lowered, she looked dejected. PTSD? Likely. She definitely had it. Will hung back, waiting until they'd separated, not wanting to make either of them uncomfortable.

"All set?" He asked, once he felt it would be OK to intrude. Ashley nodded

"I know where I'm going." She seemed to be reassuring herself as much as anyone else. She held out her hands.

"Glad you do." Will said.

"You haven't been to Moscow before, have you?" Magnus asked. Will shook his head. Ashley tilted her head back slightly, grasping his and Magnus's wrists firmly. She exhaled slowly. Will braced himself.

Cold. That was the next thing Will was aware of. Cold and dizziness.

"This is right." Magnus said calmly from somewhere.

"Good." Ashley answered. "Now we wait?"

"Now we wait." Magnus confirmed. Will nodded, panting a bit.

"How are you so used to that?" He shot at Magnus. "You can't have teleported that much more than me."

"Maybe not in the past century." Magnus replied lightly.

A man's voice called out behind them, in Russian. Magnus at least seemed to understand, she replied, approached the speaker and shook his hand, smiling. After about a minute of conversation, the Russian man nodded and said.

"Then I will speak English." He didn't speak with a very strong accent either. He turned to Ashley and Will. "I am Iosif. I work at the Moscow Sanctuary. You must be Doctor Zim...merman."

"Will." Will offered. Iosif nodded.

"That's easier. The name is not English, is it?"

"No, German."

"I thought so. My German is..."

"About as good as my Russian?" Will suggested. Iosif smiled and turned to Ashley.

"It is good to see you again Miss Magnus, or should I be calling you `Firebird`?"

"What?" Ashley smiled.

"Firebird." Iosif repeated. "We overheard two men talking on a radio, expressing their gratitude that they hadn't had to smuggle their Besherka out of Canada, because then they'd have had to deal with `Magnus and Firebird`. I thought perhaps you'd given yourself the name."

"No." Ashley replied, caught somewhere between flattery and embarrassment.

"Well..." Iosif tailed off.

"We've still got a journey ahead of us." Magnus started after a moment. "We should probably get going."

"Of course." Iosif gestured for them to follow him.

Two hours later, the jeep halted outside a long, low concrete building, sixty miles out of Moscow.

"Tedious," Iosif conceded, "but better than letting some of our residents anywhere near the main power grid, any of them could escape to it given means and motive to do so."

"Are many of them dangerous?" Will asked.

"A few, but what you witnessed was the most violent behaviour we have ever heard of. Not one abnormal here has a physical form. They are mostly pests, not killers, but there are still some I would not want to share my body with."

"Which is why we didn't teleport straight here." Magnus said.

"Yes." Iosif said, inserting a key in to a solid-looking door and opening it. "I for one wouldn't want anything more to do with Alf or Joe than absolutely necessary."

"Alf and Joe?" Ashley repeated.

"We name them after people." Iosif was now leading them down a dimly lit, narrow corridor. "Numerical names are too hard to remember and we can't find a classification system that works."

"So Alf and Joe are..?" Ashley continued

"Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. They both want power over other beings and aren't scrupulous about how they get it. And they could probably affect the mind of a human host. They're our most dangerous residents."

The corridor opened in to a cramped control room, with five computers glowing and bundles of cables lying everywhere.

"Sorry about the mess." A woman called from the shadows. "I like to keep manual cut-off an option, in case something gets past Shinny."

"Shinny?" Will asked.

"Schindler." Iosif replied. "This is Valentina, technician."

"If not for Shinny, I would be dead." Valentina extended an oily hand to Magnus, who shook it. "He keeps residents in and viruses out. He is my guardian angel." Will smiled. Valentina seemed to respect Shinny like a human, if this was anything to go by. "If you are ready to begin," Valentina continued after a moment, "so are we." Ashley nodded.

"OK." She was scared, but, like Magnus, she was good at hiding it. Valentina nodded back.

"This way." She smiled reassuringly, then led the way down a narrow flight of spiral stairs and in to another concrete room. There were fewer computers in here, and a massive metal... it looked a bit like a cage. Eight vertical copper poles stood in a ring twelve feet in diameter, but too far apart to keep anything much smaller than a bull elephant in. An `X` had been chalked in the centre.

"How accurate can you teleport?" Valentina asked Ashley, walking over to a computer and bending over it.

"Fairly." Ashley replied, not sure what was being asked of her and ignoring the grammatical error.

"Into the circle?" Valentina gestured to the poles.

"Yeah." Ashley sounded a little offended now. Her ability to teleport was a sensitive point. She'd paid a very high price for it and was determined to make it bear fruit. She was improving, but she hadn't got Druitt's speed, or precision and (however many times Magnus told her that Druitt had had a hundred and twenty years to practice) it annoyed her.

"Onto the cross?" Valentina shouted, her head inside some sort of metal box.

"Yeah, probably."

"Try." Valentina removed her head from the box. Ashley stood for a moment, eyes fixed, face and body tensed, like a sprinter on the starting blocks.

"Hang on." Ashley turned to look at Valentina. "There's no EM in here, is there?"

"Of course not. I know how dangerous that is for you."

"Good." Ashley returned to her previous posture. "Gone through an EM shield once... not something I want to do again, ever."

"You were a vampire, weren't you? I didn't think you felt any pain." Will burst out.

"I did." Ashley nodded once, evidently remembering. "You had to hit me pretty hard, but I did." She paused. "This isn't helping."

"I'll shut up." Will offered. Ashley nodded again, breathing hard, slowly.

Orange light flashed across Will's vision. Ashley stood on the chalk cross.

"Good." Valentina said, returning her head to the box. "That could have been a problem." After a minute, she re-emerged. "OK: Plan. Georgy is standing by..."

"Georgy?"

"Zhukov. One of the main Russian generals at Stalingrad. The plan is for you to teleport in to him while he's sort of... guided by the cage."

"And that won't work like an EM shield?" Ashley asked, walking back towards them.

"No. Don't worry. If we are lucky, Georgy will attach to you as you arrive."

"And you're sure about..."

"Yes. We are sure. Georgy couldn't interface with a human neural or hormonal system if he tried. He wouldn't if he could. In behavioural trials, he just defends the territory he has."

"Behavioural trials?" Ashley asked.

"Putting them in rats by shocking the rats half to dead. We didn't want to do that to you. Also, we set up simulations, mostly computer games; The Sims, Call of Duty, Total War..." What looked like a pager among the array of gadgets in Valentina's belt beeped twice. She picked it out and looked at it.

"We're ready. We need you to teleport in to the cage, as near to the cross as you can. It may take a few tries." Ashley nodded and resumed her sprinter posture. Will blinked against the sudden light. Ashley stood in the centre of the circle. Valentina looked down at her pager-thing.

"No." She called to Ashley. "Come back and try again. "Ashley turned and jogged back to where she'd started, with an expression of forced patience.

Five times Ashley teleported in to the cage. Five times Valentina called out that it hadn't worked. Five times Ashley walked back, starting to tire.

Will was beginning to wonder how long they'd keep this up, when Ashley teleported for the sixth time. But something changed. The flash of her arrival was different, redder, brighter, persisting for longer. The bars of the cage sparked.


	9. Nonyl nonanoate

**If I don't post again in 2011, Happy New Year.**

**Enjoy.**

"Ashley!" There was no mistaking the terror in Magnus's voice as she ran in to the fading light. Will and Valentina ran after her. Ashley lay slumped on her side, facing away, limbs curled, tangled in front of her. Magnus dropped beside her, breathing her name again, fingers flying to Ashley's neck.

She must have found a pulse; she didn't try to restart Ashley's heart. Instead, she leant forward, listening for breath.

"Ashley." Magnus spoke firmly now, rocking Ashley's shoulders slightly, the professional taking over. Ashley emitted a soft moan in response, eyelids flickering. The professional cracked. An expression of unfettered relief broke over Magnus's face as she spoke Ashley's name again.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley mumbled.

"It working!" Valentina burst out, making Will jump. "Georgy took you."

"Thank God for that." Ashley sighed. "Don't fancy doing that again."

"Are you hurt?" Magnus asked quickly.

"Don't think so." Ashley answered. "Just... dazed."

"I'm sorry." Valentina put in again, as if remembering herself. "I did not think it could hurt you."

"I'm OK." As if to prove her point, Ashley made to get up, but Magnus put a hand on her shoulder.

"No, sweetheart. Stay where you are for a few minutes." Ashley knew Magnus too well to fight. She lay still and waited.

o0o0o0o

"Doc?" The familiar voice made Magnus turn and smile at Henry, who was advancing, wielding a tablet. Ashley and Kate looked up too. He paused at the sight of them, hovering at the threshold of the training room. "Is this a bad time?"

"We're done." Kate answered. "Ashley's finished kicking the hell out of us." A thin smile crossed Ashley's face.

"Well, if you don't move your feet..." Ashley tailed off lightly. Kate smiled.

"OK." Henry levelled his tablet to show them. "D'you remember those weird kills I told you about a couple of months back? Friday night, twenties, males, half eaten..?" Magnus nodded.

"I remember. What have you found?"

"Turns out Virginia was just the tip of the iceberg." A map of the North American Continent, with two dots on the East coast. "These are the kills in Emporia and Fredrick's burg. Week after Emporia..." Henry tapped the screen again. Another red dot appeared above Emporia. "And a week after that..." Another above that, about the same distance further north. "And so on." Henry tapped the screen several more times. The red dots traced a line northwards, over the border in to Canada, then turning Westward, nine more in all. "That one," Henry pointed to the last, "was the day you got back from Moscow, he wasn't found till the next day, but..."

"Five days ago." Ashley said, half to herself.

"And if you look at police records..." Henry tapped the screen again. The line extended southwards, all the way to Miami.

"Hold it." Kate spoke for the first time. "Are the kills spreading outwards or did they start in Miami?"

"They started in Miami." Henry replied. "Months back." Kate looked at the screen for a moment.

"It's a migration path."

"Going the wrong way." Ashley added "What migrates north in the winter?"

"I don't know, but..." Kate broke off for a second. "Constant speed and direction... it just looks like one." Ashley bit her lip.

"Suppose it's following something, prey, I don't know. Then it would make sense."

"But it's preying on humans. We're everywhere." Kate said.

"Unless it wants a specific type of human." Magnus was pleased to hear how dispassionately Ashley said it. A couple of months ago, she would have left by this point to nurse the wounds the Cabal had dealt her.

"Tourists?" Kate suggested. "They migrate that way: North for winter sports, south for beaches and stuff in summer."

"Or avoiding the law." Henry suggested. "Most serial killers were known by their killing ground and MO: The Boston Strangler, The Yorkshire Ripper, Brooklyn Strangler, Frankford Slasher..."

"Blackout Ripper." Magnus countered, before anyone offered a better known example to the contrary. "He was an idiot."

"Why?" Kate asked. "What did he do?"

"Left his gas mask at the scene of an attack. It had his serial number in it. James said he couldn't have given them a better clue if he'd tried." Magnus explained with quiet relief. "Henry, do the kills follow the pattern, other than the locations?"

"Absolutely." He replied. "Always on a Friday night, guy in his twenties out clubbing, found dead and half eaten in woods or fields or somewhere, killed in place but no reason to go there. Mostly attributed to wolves or coyotes or something."

"Any ID on the killer?"

"Sometimes, the guy is seen leaving the club with a girl no one recognises."

"A girl?" Ashley pressed.

"Wavy blonde hair, shoulder length, tanned skin. Height estimates go from 5`4 to 5`7."

"Build?"

"Thinnish."

"Age?"

"Between nineteen and thirty. Don't blame me, blame the sources." He added quickly at Ashley's look of incredulity. "Look, Doc, we might have an opportunity here. If I'm right, and I might not be, she, it, whatever, will stop here," Henry zoomed in on the map and indicated a town, "to kill on Friday."

"We can intercept." Ashley looked at Magnus, eyes lit with the dawning thrill of the chase. She'd never lost sight of that, in spite of what had been done to her.

"Can and will." Magnus said. "Whatever this is has been attacking humans. It's our responsibility to stop it. Henry, find Will and fill him in. I think we have a hunt."

o0o0o0o

"Radios?" Will called from behind a shelf.

"Check." Henry replied from behind another.

"Spare batteries?"

"Oh, c'mon Will. That's an amateur mistake. Of course check."

"Doughnuts?"

"Kate's gone to the store."

"Coffee? It could be a long night."

"Check." Ashley called, walking in carrying a box full of flasks. "Including tea for Mum."

"Thank you Ashley." Magnus caught her eye and smiled. This sort of mission made Ashley almost childishly exited. She was confident, comfortable, like she had been two or three years ago, before Will's time or at the start of it. "This should do for a medical kit."Anything I can't deal with will have to wait 'till we get back."

"Which would take a lot less time if you'd let me teleport." Ashley said.

"No." Magnus replied firmly. "Valentina said teleport once to get home, then not at all for ten days, to make sure Georgy is fully adjusted and able to defend you against any attacking elemental." Ashley rolled her eyes, but didn't press the point.

Magnus's phone beeped twice in her pocket. She drew it out. Moscow's secondary location, the elementals, requesting a video call with her and Henry. She called him over; he knew the way to the nearest workstation better than she did. Valentina had been waiting for them.

"Very good news." She burst out, as soon as the link opened.

"Pray tell."

"Last year, you told me to find out how to separate an elemental from its host when it doesn't want to go without deading the host or connecting to any mainframe." Magnus nodded. She'd set Valentina the task after John...

A wild look of excitement had settled in Valentina's eyes.

"I did it. It's finished and it works."

"What?" Henry burst out. "How? How'd you get a charge like that isolated." Valentina smiled.

"Mobile defibrillator. It has been looking at us in the face all the time. It can deliver a massive charge, hold a massive charge and interface with something alive. Obviously, we have to make alterations, but..."

"Can you send me schematics for that?"

"I did. We tested on Goliath. Stupid as a brush, but twice the charge of any other we've found. The schematics and instructions are in your inbox."

"Thank you." Henry was grinning broadly. "Thank you so much. I'll get started as soon as we get back."

"Back?" Valentina raised an eyebrow. "Where are you going?"

"Monster hunting." Henry answered lightly. Valentina raised the other eyebrow.

"Good chance."

"We're kind of on the clock, so..."

"See you another day."

"See you." Henry closed the link. Magnus's eyes stayed on the blank screen for a moment. As a professional, she was pleased, of course she was. It was a means to separate a parasite-host complex, always a good thing. It also gave Ashley more security, even if Georgy failed. But the thing hadn't been built for Ashley.

Freeing John would save lives, but what else? What would he expect of her if she succeeded? What would she expect of him? What did she expect of herself? The situation was so convoluted; years of silence, fear, emotions not quite burned out. Convoluted didn't seem strong enough. A bloody mess was closer to the mark.

"Doc?" Henry's voice brought her back to the present. "What else do we need to do?"

"Stunners?"

"I'll check with Ash."

"Go. I want to leave in half an hour."


	10. Decyl decanoate

**There is one thing I must explain: In ****all**** my fics, Henry and all other HAPs turn in to quadruped wolves, like bona fida wolves, rather than the funny two-legged things which are hardly wolves at all.**

**Happy new year and enjoy.**

"Negative." Will's voice crackled through Magnus's radio. "They've gone into a building."

"Alright. Go to the North post. It's only Kate there now. Henry's following another couple." Will sighed.

"11:45. False leads: 10. Real leads: 0."

"We didn't expect this to be easy, with such a vague description."

"At least there's only one club. If we were somewhere like Vegas..."

"Don't even talk to me about attempting captures in Vegas Will, it's a bloody nightmare."

"I bet. We couldn't follow every blonde girl between the ages of 19 and 30 if we had an army. Five of us can just about manage it here."

"Mum." Ashley tapped Magnus and pointed. A blonde girl, probably twenty or so, was walking towards their van, arm in arm with a young man.

"Go." Magnus said simply. Ashley slunk away from the van, clinging to the half-shadows cast by the moon on the snow.

Magnus lifted her mug of tea and sighed softly. This was going to be a long night.

o0o0o0o

"This one's no go." Ashley's voice, distorted by the radio, broke the silence as Magnus slunk at a half-crouch behind another couple.

"Come back here, I'm on my own." Will's voice.

"Hey, so am I." Henry put in. Ashley said she'd go to Henry, he was nearer, as Magnus re-levelled her tranquilizer gun and advanced, nearly silent in the snow. Where could she go next for cover, the tree on the corner would do.

"Can someone cover my post?" Will's voice. "I've got another one here."

"I'll go." Ashley answered.

Magnus rounded the corner after her targets and hissed in frustration. They were disappearing through a front door. She touched her radio.

"Negative."

"I think I know why." Kate whispered in to her radio. "My two are heading out of town. She's leading him. They've stopped by the side of the road we came into town on, by the forest, a hundred yards past the gas station."

"Doc, that fits." Henry cut in.

"Kate hold position." Ashley, Henry, meet me there."

"C'mon Doc, if I don't follow them, we'll lose the visual." Kate shot back.

"Tracking is easy in the snow and I'm not leaving you isolated." Magnus said, breaking in to a run.

.

Kate raised her arm as Magnus drew close. Henry was already beside her, still panting, breath hanging in the air. Magnus pushed back the stitch in her side, the echo of pain in her left leg. Ashley's muffled footsteps sounded behind her. She halted beside the others, panting slightly.

"They've got a five minute start on us. We can redeem that. Ashley, watch our rear." Ashley nodded. They moved off, following the two sets of footprints in the snow, as fast as they dared. Henry's panting gave way to rapid, shallow breaths through his mouth and nose alternately. He was looking for a scent trail. Kate's eyes were down, fixed on the dark trail, but she was still alert. Ashley radiated focus. Her nightmares, her fears were gone. This was the work she loved and nothing could interfere. Pines began to appear between the birch trees, growing denser, their dark, ridged bark replacing smooth white. The snow thinned under their needles, the trail thinned with it. Finally, both disappeared. Kate swore.

"What do we do now?" Henry lifted his head, inhaling slowly, top lip curled, as if in Flehmen response.

"This way." He set off at a fast walk through the darkness.

"How'd you know?" Kate asked.

"Scent." Henry replied shortly.

"Basically," Ashley cut in, breathing barely affected by their pace. "We got a bloodhound."

They continued for maybe a minute, Henry leading the way now, scenting the air with every breath, before the position of their quarry became horribly clear. A scream, wordless, unintelligible, terrified, reached them. Magnus took off, following the sound, hearing three other sets of footfalls running too.

The screams faltered. Ashley was leading now, forcing her way through the saplings, eyes forwards, gun levelled. Snow on the ground ahead, a clearing, fifteen feet across. A prone form lay there, snow around stained red. Magnus dropped to her knees beside him, knowing before she touched his ruined neck what she'd find.

"He's dead."

"So where's the killer?" Ashley asked quietly.

"Still here." Kate murmured. "Watching us."

"Form up." Magnus rose as she spoke. The four of them stepped back into a square, facing outwards. Henry was breathing hard.

A low growl started in the thicket. Ashley fired. Silence. For a moment, no one moved. Then Ashley began to advance, slowly, cautiously, edging towards where the dart lay.

There was no warning. The thicket to Ashley's right exploded in a burst of fur, fangs. Ashley cried out and fell back. Shock? Pain? Fear bit Magnus as she fired. The abnormal rounded on her. It was canine in form, sand coloured, powerful. Magnus had a heartbeat to register this before it sprang at her. She darted aside, just ahead of it, sprawling. White snow, black trees, red blood. Who's? Magnus rolled over, gun levelled. The abnormal was facing away from her. It leapt at Kate. Magnus fired, heard three other shots. Kate dived aside. Ashley was on her feet again. The abnormal turned to Henry, gait drunken. More shots. It crumpled

Magnus got to her feet and approached it slowly. It lay sprawled on its side. Ashley prodded it experimentally with her foot. Nothing.

"Is anyone hurt?" Magnus's voice sounded quiet after the shots, the creature's cries.

"Not badly." Ashley replied, hiding her left arm behind her body.

"Ashley, let me see that." Ashley complied, with a look that suggested she'd have rather not. Her forearm was bloody, a series of lacerations lay just below her elbow, her jacket torn. "I'll deal with that in the van." Magnus lifted her radio.

"Will."

"Copy."

"Get back to the van and drive to the gas station on the edge of town. It's closed, you won't attract attention. Ashley, will you be able to find your way back here?" She nodded. "OK. Will, Ashley will meet you there. The rest of us will clean up here."

"On my way." The radio fell silent. Ashley slung her left arm across her right shoulder, as if it were in an elevation sling, and set off.

"You sure she's OK?" Kate asked quietly. Magnus nodded.

"The wounds are superficial and she's good at just carrying on."

"What are we going to do about..." Kate gestured at the man's body and the prone wolf."

"We've no right to take his body, but we need to get the darts out of the abnormal."

"Why?"

"It's taken a massive dose. Any darts which haven't injected yet could kill it" Kate nodded and crouched down to help. "Henry?"

Henry shook his head hard.

"Yeah, sorry." He crouched down at the abnormal's shoulder, panting.

"Are you alright?" He definitely didn't look it.

"Yeah. It's just..." He gestured one handed. "The smells, blood, hormones, they're getting to me a bit."

"If you want to go and sit down..."

"No, it's cool. I'll be fine." For a while, no one spoke, running their hands over the abnormal's thick, soft, ochre coat, feeling for darts, removing them. Magnus began to take stock of the magnificent animal. She, this close to, there was no doubt of her gender, seemed to stand about a metre in the shoulder, most like Canis Lupus in for, perhaps edging towards Canis Rufus, long legged and slight. Her pulse was slow and a little too faint for Magnus's liking, but there was nothing to be done for her here. The abnormal's teeth were bloody, barely worn, she was young. Why had she turned on humans? She looked easily strong enough to catch the ungulate prey this type of predator usually preferred.

Magnus was confident that all the darts were out of the abnormal by the time Will and Ashley arrived with a tarpaulin, the easiest way to carry a big quadruped. Will's usual questions appeared as they set about moving her.

"How much tranq did she take?"

"Seven darts, but that was too much."

"How much too much?"

"Not very. She'll be fine."

"She? It's definitely a girl then. Was she wearing that?" Magnus looked round and saw, for the first time, a bundle of clothes at the base of a tree.

"Yeah." Kate replied, picking them up and dumping them uncerimonaly on top of the tarpaulin next to the abnormal.

"Alright. Henry, that corner, Will, there, Kate, there." Magnus said, grasping the remaining corner herself. "Lift on three: One, two, three."

They'd covered maybe twenty feet of ground, when the abnormal convulsed violently.

**Any and all reviews welcome**


	11. Unodecyl unodecanoate

**I apologise for the blackly-comic last section of this chapter. I have never written anything like it and probably never will again. I hope I haven't offended anybody. I also apologise if any of the psycology I quote in that section is wrong.**

**By the way, the digitalis pulse can be felt on the inside of the top half of the leg in most canis and felix animals (aka dogs and cats). **

**Enjoy.**

They'd covered maybe twenty feet of ground when the abnormal convulsed violently. Magnus shouted at the others to put the abnormal down, then crouched by her hindlegs, reaching for the digitalis pulse. The limb contorted impossibly as she touched it, feeling through the fur not the ecliptical leg of a carnivore, but the circular leg of a human. Then it hit her. She rose and stepped back, still covering the abnormal with her pistol. The thing's claws slid back into its paws, which now looked more like hands and feet.

"It's alright." Magnus answered Ashley's quizzical look. "She's morphing, that's all."

"Looks very painful." Will muttered.

"It is." Henry confirmed. "She is out of it, right?"

"For now." Magnus answered, "but I don't know what effect this will have on the sedative." The abnormal's fur receded, growing from her head, but otherwise leaving her tanned skin exposed. Will and Henry looked away, embarrassed. As the pointed ears faded, sliding round the abnormal's head, and the long muzzle shrank back in to the skull, Magnus caught her breath slightly. Where, moments before, there had lain an animal, a predator, something to be feared, there now lay a girl, naked, vulnerable and startlingly human. She'd no protection from cold now, unconscious and every inch of skin exposed. Magnus removed her coat and threw it over the girl's motionless body.

"Do we carry on?" Ashley asked. Kate bent down and poked the sole of the girl's foot, hard.

"She's still out of it." Magnus nodded.

"Let's move. I want to get her out of the cold." Will and Henry looked back cautiously, then picked up their corners of the tarpaulin.

"Y'd think they'd never seen a woman naked before." Kate muttered to Ashley, who sniggered.

"And if we'd looked," Will answered. "you'd have been on at us for staring. Lose-lose."

o0o0o0o

"Hyper-accelerated Protein lifeform (hereafter HAP) female. Age: approximately twenty years. Height: Five foot, six inches." Magnus pressed pause on the dictating machine. She preferred to dictate a report while in contact with the specimen, then type her notes up later. She glanced up at Bigfoot, who pulled back the blanket from the girl's body. She had yet to regain consciousness, at least partly due to the Diazepam in her drip, but she was stable at least. Magnus drew breath and continued. "Physical condition on arrival: pulse and blood pressure low due to Diazepam overdose necessitated by capture. Stable within thirty minutes. Otherwise healthy. Body fat proportion: low. Muscular density: high. Scars on arrival: Four marks between scapulas, probably due to a bite wound inflicted while in quadruped form by a similar animal some years ago. Pulse and blood pressure at time of report: 58 at 105 over 70. Stable. Respiratory rate: approximately twelve breaths per minute."

Magnus turned off the dictating machine and looked up at Bigfoot.

"Good catch." He grunted. "I doubt she came quietly." Magnus smiled.

"I've had worse."

"Don't doubt it."

"We should get her in to containment, quickly."

"Hoh." He nodded, dropped the blanket back over the girl and began to wheel her away. "I can handle this. You get some rest."

"And you?"

"I already did."

"See you in the morning then."

"Hoh."

Magnus de-gloved and left the infirmary, mind back in the forest. If she'd ordered Kate to go on, could she have saved the man? Or would the HAP have killed Kate too? It could have taken Magnus, Henry and Ashley a long time to find them. The abnormal had taken... maybe seven or eight tranquilizer darts. That was more than one clip. It could well have killed Kate before she'd subdued it. But if...

Henry's workshop light was on.

"Henry?" She called out as she approached. He looked up as though startled.

"Hey Doc."

"What are you doing up this late?"

"Was ah..." Henry gestured at the tangle of wires before him. "Having a look at the defibrillator stuff." Magnus paused.

"At half past two in the morning?"

"Yeah." Henry replied sheepishly. "I said I'd start as soon as I got back, so..." He tailed off. Magnus waited for him to continue. "And I don't think I'd be able to sleep anyway." Magnus inhaled quietly, waiting for the crux, already knowing what it would be. "I guess it's just the smells and stuff, but..." He scratched himself on the shoulder. "Just when I was starting to accept that I was safe, y'know... never gonna hurt anybody, then..." He looked down. "She's like me. And if she can do that..."

"Then what?" Henry half flinched.

"I'd persuaded myself that I wasn't any more dangerous than a human, but you saw what she did to that guy."

Magnus shook her head slightly.

"Do you know what that tells me Henry?"

"That I'm screwed up?"

"No, that you didn't live through the forties." He looked at her quizzically, so she continued. "You didn't see what the Axis powers did to those who opposed them. You didn't see what came out of Auschwitz. They were like ghosts, too shocked, too broken to speak. You could only be sure they were alive when they moved. I've never seen any abnormal inflict anything on any other creature that compares to that. It made me ashamed to be human. The greatest threat to mankind is itself, and in every species, some individuals will be more aggressive than others. You'd have to push Will a long way before he'll attack you, but look at Ashley."

"She's not..."

"Technically, she is human, if we're using the biological definition of the word. The same applies to you and the other HAP. One loose cannon doesn't mean that an entire species is savage. I've heard of far more human serial killers than abnormal and, Henry, you're not a killer, you never will be. I saw you holding on, even when Gerald was about to kill you. You didn't try to retaliate, and I wouldn't have blamed you if you had. Henry, if you won't kill under immediate threat of death, you are most definitely not a killer. Now get to bed. I don't want you messing around with a defibrillator when you've been up all night."

o0o0o0o

Will glanced at his watch. 10:30. The HAP should be awake by now, and if she wasn't, she probably needed medical help. Will opened the door and walked unhurriedly in to the corridor. There was still a layer of bullet proof glass between him and the HAP, so it was easy enough to follow the first rule of dealing with killers: Never show fear. The last time Will had looked through this piece of glass, things had been very different. Druitt and Tesla had been breathing down each other's necks somewhere, Magnus had been at breaking point, Ashley had been the target of the capture, not instrumental in carrying it out. Will only hoped that the HAP spoke better English than Ashley had.

The HAP was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, either unaware of him or ignoring him.

"Hey." At the sound of his voice, she rolled off the bed and on to the floor, landing on her hands and knees.

"Bout time." She tossed her hair back and slunk towards him, still on all fours. "I'm starved. First you guys take my dinner off me, then I don't get breakfast either." Flippant behaviour, possibly being used to disguise fear.

"You're hungry?"

"Duh."

"You killed that guy for food?"

"Duh. Hows about getting me something to eat?" Will nodded.

"I can organise that, but first you and I need to have a talk." Offer incentive for cooperation. She rolled her eyes theatrically.

"What?"

"Let's just start with `what's your name?` I'm Will. Will Zimmerman."

She grabbed a lock of hair and pulled it across under her chin, looking sideways at him.

"Venusss. D'you know what that means, toy boy?" Will bit back a smile. He'd been called a lot of names by patients, mostly four letters long and unlikely to be taught in kindergarten. `Toy boy` was a first.

"Second planet out from the sun and Roman goddess of love, right?" Venus shook her head.

"Not love. Love's all drawn out, complicated, cleaning up someone's puke, pretending to like their parents...no." Will waited to hear the end of the train of thought, mentally noting fear of commitment, possible major rebound issues... "Sex." Venus lingered over the word as if she enjoyed saying it. Nymphomaniac too? Could be. "Roman goddess of sex and hotness. That's who I am." Nymphomania looking more likely by the second. Possibly a control freak? Freud would have loved her. "Are you?"

"Ah..." Will bit back the urge to laugh. "No. I can't really be goddess of anything. I'm a man." Venus didn't answer. "Look, the next thing I wanted to ask you was why you killed a human for food. There are plenty of deer and stuff, and you must have known that killing a human would attract attention. You're in good enough physical condition to..."

"Good physical condition am I?" She cut across him. "Want a closer look?"

"Ah..." Will started, feeling she probably wouldn't take this for an answer. "Honestly, no."

"You don't know 'till you try."

"I've got a pretty good idea thanks. Can we go back to what I was asking you?"

"Boring." Venus shouted over him. She grabbed the lowest edge of her slacks and pulled it up to her hip, baring one long, toned leg. She looked at him for a response. He didn't oblige her even slightly.

"Look, why a human if-"

"Boring!" She shouted again. She released the hem of her slacks and seized the lower hem of her top. There was a limit. As the HAP began to pull the cloth off over her head, Will turned and walked away. "Cold-blooded poof!" She called after him. That was called being a sore loser.


	12. Duodecyl duodecanoate

**Sorry that this chapter is so short.**

**Enjoy.**

"Will." Magnus looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching, a little late for the staff meeting, uncharacteristically. "Any joy?"

"Define joy." He dropped in to a chair. She smiled.

"Have you found anything out.

"She is:" Will raised his hand and began listing on his fingers. "Afraid of commitment, probably a nymphomaniac..."

"What?" Kate asked.

"Sex junkie." Ashley provided.

"Control freak," Will continued, "and a sore loser."

"I take it she's unrepentant then?"

"More pissed at us for stealing her food." Will replied. Magnus sighed. She'd hoped Will would have found some sort of foothold.

"Well, keep at it."

"I know." Will raised his hands. "It would help if I knew what info you wanted."

"Why she was preying on humans and if she was acting alone."

"It's a pretty good way to hunt, when you think about it." Kate began. "Prey comes to you, doesn't put up a fight, and when she starts taking her clothes off-" Ashley's phone rang.

"Sorry." She mumbled, walking away to answer it. "Hello?"

"He's not exactly gonna think `Aaah! I'm gonna get eaten`, is he?"

"Of course it's me Squid." Ashley said to her phone.

Will nodded in response to Kate's remark.

"It'll take time, but I'll get the stuff out of her."

"Kate," Magnus turned to her, "can you still go to visit the Laus Aurelus captive flock today?"

"Five cubic metres airspace per fledged specimen, one square metre of water per breeding pair, water reasonably clean, food being tested for copper." Kate recited. Magnus nodded and smiled.

"You've been reading." Kate shrugged.

Ashley strode back over, face screaming a warning. Magnus felt herself tense, even before Ashley set the phone to loudspeaker, saying,

"Say all that again, slowly." Squid's voice crackled out of the phone.

"You remember a few months back I tipped you off about a tall bald guy with your Mum's accent?"

"Yes." Ashley replied, looking at Magnus.

"Same guy is in Thornbury Close right now. There's CCTV there, get your tecchie to check if you don't believe me." Henry seized his tablet and started.

"What's he doing?" Ashley growled, never moving her eyes from Magnus's face.

"Just pacing around. Twitching like he's coming off a heroin high."

"How long's he been there?"

"Five minutes at least." Squid hung up. Ashley just stared at her mother.

"Doc." Henry held out his tablet. "Live CCTV." John, pacing just as Squid had described. Magnus didn't move. Dear God, he was there. He was right there. If...

"Henry, how long do you need for..."

"It's done." He cut her off. "I mean, it's not tested, but I followed Valentina's instructions and..."

"It'll do. Get it to the van. Everyone else, gear up. We'll organise strategy en route." Kate moved to obey. Will and Ashley didn't. "Move." She insisted. Ashley turned, tossing her hair, striding away. Will followed silently.

o0o0o0o

Time zones be damned, he was early. Very early. He doubted it was even noon yet. It would be sensible to find a bolthole of some sort in these decrepit stacks of bricks and mortar, still holding shape, and sleep for a few hours. But he couldn't. Every cell in his body was burning. He knew well enough why. An hour ago, he'd paced the back-streets of Phnom Penh, where Helen had found him... after Worth had reared his ugly head again. He wasn't proud, but it delayed what had to come. He'd been like this for days, eating nothing, drinking little, passing between drugged stupor and this... mania. The half-dressed pubescent bints of Phnom Penh had elicited no response from him, he hadn't even seen their pulse points the way he usually did. Taking one would have been easy, but no more than scratching an itch; barely a moment's reprieve.

He'd found himself here again, to do what he had to do.

He could set off now, remind himself of the narrow, dark streets where, hours later, prey would appear, but he didn't need to. He knew his way as if he'd spent years here. He could look for cover, even if he wouldn't sleep. It would keep him out of sight, keep anyone from trying to interfere. He didn't need to create a scene, like he had the last time he'd been here. He could do without any interference from her.

John turned from the path he'd been pacing. He'd gone half a dozen paces before he halted sharply, hand on knife. Someone had run in to him. A tall, dark haired, strikingly beautiful someone.

"Helen."

"John." She looked up at him, startled. She was panting, there was blood on her face, her pistol hung from her hand. She turned sharply. "Ashley!" She called. There was no response. She turned back to him, eyes burning with fear. "Dear God, she's still there. It's still got her. Oh, dear God." John felt fear rise in his own chest. Helen turned again and ran back the way she'd come. He took off after her.

"Helen, wait!" If she only told him where she was going, he could be so much faster. She didn't seem to her him "Helen!" Of course not. Her child was in danger and she hadn't asked for his help. But he would give it. His knife was still in his hand. Helen was at her most dangerous right now, as was he. Whatever was threatening Ashley should flee now, before they reached it. His rage was coiled, ready to spring. Cold, controlled, vengeful anger coursed through him. He was ready to kill.

As soon as Helen turned right sharply, into a basement, he knew the close was near. As soon as his own feet met the top of the slope, he sensed danger. As the air above him closed in to concrete, he knew something was wrong, very wrong. In the split second between realisation and action, Helen dived away from him.

Pain. Sharp, jarring, electrical pain burst into being along his right side. He couldn't move. He staggered as it subsided. Ashley. Ashley stood facing him, stunner levelled. Someone else moved to his left. The Freelander girl, stunner levelled like Ashley's. She fired. He staggered again. He had to get out. He gathered himself. His back arched as another blast struck it. He fell to his knees.

"Bring him down." Helen's voice. In that moment, everything was clear. She hadn't brought him here to save Ashley. She'd brought him here to end it; to end what he'd called life for a hundred and twenty-five years, to end his cycle of torment, bloodlust. But would she have the heart to do it? There was one way to be sure. John gathered his strength and lunged at Ashley.

Two more shots. Black eclipsed the world. He was face down on the floor, chest burning. Why couldn't he just die? He couldn't hear, or feel the floor beneath him, if it was beneath. He dragged his knife hand forward, towards where Ashley was.

Another blast. The burning in his chest became a vice. His ears rang, his vision distorted. He couldn't breathe. The darkness closed.

The screaming beast fell silent.

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	13. Teritodecyl teritodecanoate

**Thanks to the two first-time reviewers of this fic last chapter.**

**I have now been at this 60 days exactly. Thanks to those who've stayed with me throughout.**

**Enjoy.**

Magnus froze. He was still now, didn't seem to be breathing. Ashley and Kate were looking at her for instructions. She crouched beside him. Ashley kicked the knife out of his limp hand. Magnus began to feel his neck for a pulse. It was a moment before she was sure.

"Will, Henry, start the clock and get the cold packs." There was a flurry of movement beside the van. Ashley grasped John's overcoat. She and Magnus rolled him on to his back. Magnus began to open the long coat, never looking back at his face as she turned to Will and Henry, taking the cold packs and pressing them against the prone form beside her. "Kate, secure the perimeter. Henry, get the defibrillator standing by, and tell me when the clock reaches six minutes. Will, with Kate." Magnus acted as if in a dream, as if a spectator, scarcely aware of her own body.

She sank back onto her heels once the cold packs were in place, silent and still. She didn't speak, she didn't move, didn't think, until Henry set the defibrillator down beside her.

"Six minutes, three seconds." It was as if she'd been freed from an enchantment. Magnus reached for the controls first, her breathing doubled in speed. "Remind me why you waited so long?" He added.

"To panic the parasite." By some miracle, her voice was still level. "If it thinks its host is dead, it will try to escape." 100. She released the charge and felt the prone form jerk. Ashley reached for the controls. "200." The movements were mechanical. They meant nothing now. Anyone could have jerked as the energy discharged under her hands. Anyone. Not him. "250" She'd hated him. She'd loved him. He'd given her so much fear, so much pain. He'd given her so much joy, so much love. "300" In a century and a half, she'd never felt this way about anyone else. No one else had hurt her that badly. No one else had touched her that profoundly. She never wanted to be near him again. All she wanted was to be by his side. For all eternity. She'd led him in to the trap. She was fighting to save his life. Willing him to die. Willing him to live. "360."

Magnus jerked back, shielding her face. A jet of sparks flew from the defibrillator, the paddles were still stuck to John's chest. After a moment, she lowered her hands. Henry was already at the controls. The defibrillator was charging. It was charging of its own accord.

"Give me the paddles!" He shouted. He and Ashley slammed them back in to place a second before the shock discharged. Henry grabbed a reel of insulating tape and began to bind them in place. "OK. Evil defibrillator, we got it." He panted. Magnus nodded once and reached for John's neck. Willing him to die. Willing him to live.

Pulse. Rapid, shallow, but regular, determinedly present. She moved her hand to his sternum. He was breathing, if barely. Magnus looked up at Ashley. She nodded once and helped roll John back on to his side, shifting his limbs to the Recovery Position.

"Will, Kate. Are we secure?" Magnus shouted, looking up and getting to her feet.

"Yeah!" Will called back.

"There's only one way in." Kate added.

"Will, take over here. Shout if he goes back in to . Kate watch the door. Henry, how long do you need?"

"Few more minutes." He replied, still taping down the defibrillator paddles, which sounded like they were charging again.

"Ashley, help him. I want to be out of here quickly."

Silence. Above him, around him, voices shouted, but still, silence. He felt as if he were burning. Was he? He stirred.

"Hey. You still with us?" A voice, close at hand. "Magnus! He's coming round." It shouted.

Magnus. That name meant something. Helen Magnus... A tall, fair, radiantly beautiful woman, looked up from her book, stood at a workbench, hands quick, dexterous, walked arm in arm with him through the snow, watched calmly as a red fluid was injected in to her arm, became one with him as they lay together, fired a pistol in to his face, pointed another gun at him, hair dark now, eyes wild with fear, recoiled from his touch under the Egyptian sky, sat sobbing, broken, left arm drenched in her own blood, crumpled as she ran in to his fist, sat beside him in the darkness, ran forward to catch him as he fell, reeling, her gun cast aside, collided with him in the street above.

She was here. He opened his eyes, inhaling sharply. Pain clawed at his chest.

"Hey, hey. Take it easy." There was a hand on his shoulder. "Just breathe slowly and deeply." John obeyed without thinking. "That's it. That's it. You're gonna be fine." The pain in his chest began to ease. "Just take it easy, OK? You're fine." John looked up at the speaker. Zimmerman. Doctor Will Zimmerman.

"Helen." His voice was weak, hoarse. Doctor Zimmerman nodded.

"She's here."

He had to see her. He tried to sit up, but the hand on his shoulder held him back. "No, just lie still for the moment." He didn't understand. He had to see her.

"Will." That was Helen. That was her. "We need to get out of here now. The police are setting up a roadblock to contain a break-in."

o0o0o0o

"You OK?" Kate looked across at Ashley. Henry was containing the thing in the defibrillator, so it fell to them to deal with the stunners.

"Yeah why wouldn't I be?" Ashley replied, way too quickly for Kate to believe her.

"Well," Kate began, choosing her words carefully, "you kind of have a history with Druitt. He's the only one who has a hope in a fight against you, for starters."

"Look." Ashley returned shortly. "He's an abnormal who's a menace to humans."

"He also happens to be your-"

"I don't care if my biological father is Ghengis freaking Khan. I've got Mum, I've got the Big Guy, I've got Henry. You didn't really have much of a father either." Kate shrugged. "And you're OK, aren't you?"

"Guess so."

"He's got no right to come and impose himself now. I've been fine without him for twenty-five years, Mum has been for longer."

"OK." Kate raised her hands. "Ashley, all I'm saying is that if you need to talk to another girl, meaning under a hundred and fifty, I'm here." Ashley looked down and sighed.

"Thanks."

o0o0o0o

"OK." Will spoke with an ease he didn't feel around killers, even if Jack the Ripper himself, itself, whatever, was stuck in a defibrillator downstairs. He was still a little creeped as he opened the door to Isal. room 2. "Magnus wants you in here for the time being, to keep an eye on you."

"Understandable." Druitt replied, following Will in to the room and sitting down immediately, panting slightly. "I'd do no less in her place." Will nodded.

"It's procedure to keep new arrivals isolated until their bloods come back clean, to protect residents from any pathogens." Druitt nodded once. "The bathroom is through there if you need it. Are you hungry?"

"Not especially."

"Then I suggest you get some rest. You've just been through massive cardiac trauma, you need it." Druitt nodded once more, still not making eye contact. "If you can't sleep, my sources tell me you're a reader."

"Care to disclose your sources?"

"Scotland Yard case notes." Will confessed. "You studied literature at College. The two tend to go together. Anything you feel like reading right now?"

"I've no real preference." Druitt replied, looking up at the ceiling. "It's been so long since I've read properly, fallen in to another's world..." He tailed off.

"I'll go see what I can find." Will turned and had laid his hand on the door before Druitt spoke again.

"Thank you for taking the trouble, Doctor Zimmerman."

"Will." Will corrected him. He was always Will to a patient, and he was pretty sure he'd end up working with Druitt when he wasn't busy with a werewolf. Two (hopefully ex-) serial killers in one week? That was a first.

"By that hand," Druitt replied, "I should ask you to call me John." Will nodded.

"OK." He turned and left, sealing the door behind him.

o0o0o0o

"You're sure the entity is secure?" Magnus repeated, looking over Henry's shoulder at one of the screens in his workshop.

"Yes, Doc." He repeated patiently. "There is no feasible way for it to get out unless someone teleports through it."

"And the EM shield..."

"Is up."

"Problem." Both their radios crackled in to life, with Kate's voice.

"Go ahead." Magnus answered first.

"HAP girl is down, twitching, frothing at the mouth."

"Breathing?"

"Fast and shallow. I think you should prep an OR." Magnus nodded.

"Will, Ashley, Bigfoot, are you getting this?"

"Yeah."

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Ashley, go and help Kate bring her up here. No teleporting."

"Gotcha." Ashley replied.

"Will, where are you?"

"Library."

"Bigfoot?"

"Observation room."

"Get to the OR and gown up. I'll meet you there."


	14. Quatrodecyl quatrodecanoate

**Warning: Very graphic surgery ahead, description mostly anatomical. Next chapter will be much more emotion based, if you've been waiting for that, it's coming.**

**Enjoy.**

Magnus hadn't taken two steps before her radio burst in to life again.

"Magnus, she was faking it." Kate's voice, strained. "She waited 'till I couldn't see her, got behind the door, went wolf and barged me. She's coming your way."

"Damn it! Kate, are you injured?"

"I'm OK."

"Armed?"

"Got live, but no stunner."

"After her, but don't shoot to kill."

"Got it."

"Mum, I've got my Desert Eagle, and I'm miles from an armoury."

"Join up with Kate. We have to catch her. If she breaks perimeter, we're in trouble."

"Doc, I can seal off the lower levels." Henry put in.

"But that cuts me off." Will put in.

"We can handle this." Ashley said. "It's one oversized dog."

"Henry, you and I need to get to an armoury." Magnus said, cursing herself for leaving her pistol in the van. Henry got up and followed her at a run. They turned right, in to the main lab. It was a moment before either of them heard it.

A low soft growl from behind them. They both turned. The HAP stood there, bristling, growling. For a second, they looked at each other, frozen. Then the HAP charged. Magnus and Henry bolted apart. The HAP froze where they had been, then turned on Magnus. She was unarmed. She couldn't fight. She ran. The HAP cut across her again. The HAP drove her back. It was toying with her, cornering her, knowing she couldn't stop it. Henry was no stronger than she, he couldn't help her. The HAP came at her, knocking her off her feet. She punched at the underside of its jaw. It yelped and reared. Magnus scrambled away. It bought her barely a second. She felt its paws on her back. She fell. She could feel its breath on the back of her neck.

A baying howl. The paws disappeared from her back. Snarling filled the air. Magnus rolled over. Two HAPs tumbled over each other, thrashing, clawing. Henry. Henry was fighting the other HAP. Which was he? They moved so fast, were so close together, that she couldn't see where one ended and the other began.

Running footsteps. Two figures. Ashley and Kate, guns levelled. Magnus drew breath to shout a warning. Both opened fire. Both HAPs fell to the floor, on top of eachother, still moving, bleeding, howling in pain.

"Oh my God." Ashley breathed. "Which one's Henry?"

Magnus ran forward, scruffed the uppermost HAP and dragged it clear. Blood gushed from its abdomen. Its howl became a high-pitched scream as she moved it. Magnus released its scruff and pulled one hindleg forward. Female.

"That one." Magnus pointed to the other. He was as bloody as the female, his howling had subsided in to whines, not necessarily a good sign. Nothing with collapsing lungs could howl, or anything in clinical shock. If she lost him...

"What happened?" Bigfoot ran in.

"Both HAPs injured. We treat Henry first. Get him to the OR." Magnus pointed , indicating Henry again, then set off at a run to gown up.

"Ashley and Kate have the other one." Bigfoot said, shouldering the OR doors open, Henry still cradled in his arms. Magnus nodded.

"Put him down and re-scrub. You're no longer-"

"Aseptic. I know." Bigfoot obeyed. Magnus turned to Henry.

"Henry can you hear me?" He nodded, chest rising and falling rapidly. Pulse? Very fast, but not as faint as she'd feared. How much of this blood was actually his, and where was he bleeding from? There was most blood on his abdomen and his shoulder. If there was a bullet in either of those places, abdomen would kill him faster. She reached for the swabs and started work, looking for the wound.

The blood didn't replenish itself as Magnus removed it. There was no wound there. Magnus sighed in relief and turned to Henry's shoulder.

"I need you to stay in HAP form, Henry." She said, more for the purpose of talking to him than anything else. "Otherwise I won't be able to get the bullet out. If you morph, your tissues move over each other, they'll trap the bullet." Bigfoot lifted Henry's top lip away from his teeth.

"Pale." He remarked.

"Prep blood for transfusion, and 7mg morphine." Magnus reached for the forceps, hoping she wouldn't have to mangle the tissue too much. She slid the surgical probe in beside the bullet. Henry emitted a high yelp of pain. "I'm sorry Henry, this has to be done." Bigfoot returned with the morphine. "No, not yet. If he passes out while he's like this, he won't morph back and I won't be able to stitch him." When he did morph back, the movement would pull the sutures through him like cheese wire. Magnus felt the forceps close around the bullet. Henry yowled again as she drew it back along the path by which it had entered.

"Mum." Ashley pushed the door open, fear all over her face. "The other one is restrained. What do we do now?"

"Standard first aid. Pressure on wounds, but don't endanger yourself. If she stops breathing, use a funnel and muzzle her first, resuscitate as you would any canis." Ashley didn't leave. She was still looking at Henry.

"He'll be fine." Magnus turned back to her patient. "Henry, listen to me. I need you to be in human form now. Once you are, we can give you morphine." Henry's eyes closed. "No. Henry, stay with me. His shoulders contorted. He was morphing. Relief flooded her. Now she could treat him. "That's it." She breathed. Bigfoot threw a blanket over him, just before his fur disappeared. Magnus slid the morphine-loaded needle in to Henry's axillary vein in his uninjured arm, before Henry's head had quite returned to normal. The bullet wound was now on his back. She rolled him over, exposing it.

"Suture."

It didn't take her long to close the wound, in spite of how distorted it was by the morph. Henry had lost consciousness, but his pulse was stronger and steady. While Ashley took Henry down to the infirmary, Bigfoot fetched the second HAP.

"Bad." He shouted, laying the limp, bloody form on the table. "Pulse barely there, bleeding everywhere."

"There's a bullet in her abdomen. Our first priority is to deal with that." The blood was appearing from not one site, but two, one just behind the ribs, the other just in front of her pelvis.

"I'll hook her up to a monitor." Bigfoot offered.

"Do. Intubate as well. This could be a long job." She couldn't see what she was doing for blood. The bullet was deep, very deep. If it was in the HAP's stomach or pancreas, it was over. Sepsis would have set in by now. Which side was the stomach in a HAP? She'd never dissected one. She had to widen the wound of she'd never find the bullet. Magnus slit the skin back an inch and eased the tissues apart. Bigfoot reappeared and held them. Magnus swabbed the wound out and, for an instant, she could see. Metal glinted in a solid mass of tissue. Liver. The bullet was embedded in the HAP's liver. Magnus reached for the forceps and recovered it.

"There's nothing more to be done here. Set up a fluid drip. We don't want her in deep shock if we can avoid it."

"Hoh." Magnus turned to the second wound, painfully aware of the HAP's low blood pressure and slow, irregular heartbeat. The second bullet hadn't gone in straight, perpendicular to the HAP's spine, it was angled in to the seat of the pelvis.

"How conscious is she?"

"Way out. Gums are white."

"Oh dear God. How much blood do you think she's lost."

"A lot."

"I need to get that bullet out, but that would be fairly invasive surgery."

"She's dead if you don't." Magnus nodded and reached for the scalpel again. As soon as she disturbed the endimetrium, she knew something was wrong, badly wrong. It didn't smell of blood, or even dog. It smelled of urine. She widened the wound further, chasing the bullet. Then she saw it. Two concentric, hollow spheres, the outer pink, the inner red lay pierced before her, contents lost to the abdominal cavity. It had been a bladder once. Now it was nothing.

The monitor emitted a single, high tone. Bigfoot went for the defibrillator.

"Leave it." He stopped and looked at her. "Ruptured bladder. She'd be dead in hours." He looked in to the wound Magnus was holding open.

"Hoh. No chance."

"Not with that much blood already lost." Bigfoot reached and turned the monitor off.

"We tried." Magnus sighed and lowered her head.

"That we did."

"What do you want me to do with the body?"

"Store it. I'll dissect it at some point. I know next to nothing about these creatures. I'll clean up here."

"Hoh." Bigfoot disconnected the monitor and the drip, bundled the body in to a bag and carried it out. Magnus set about the table, first with hot water and soap. If they'd treated the female first, could they have saved her? She wouldn't have lost as much blood, so she might have survived surgery. Might. Even if they'd patched up the physical damage, the chemical damage from the urea might have been fatal, and both layers of the bladder were broken. It would have been nigh on impossible to repair that. Henry might have bled to death while they'd tried. She'd sacrificed any chance the female had had saving Henry. Better that than the reverse, however unprofessional that sentiment was. Henry was the closest she had to a son.


	15. Quintodecyl quintodecanoate

**Sorry about the length of this.**

**By the way, anyone know what my chapter names are?**

**Enjoy.**

What? Who? Where? When? What? Ow. His shoulder hurt. Really hurt. He moaned quietly.

"Henry?" Was that Ash? "Henry?" Yes, it was Ash. He opened his eyes blearily. He was lying on his side, facing her. "Henry." Her face broke in to a broad smile. Her eyes were red. She'd been crying.

"Where..?"

"Infirmary?" She answered the question before he'd finished asking it. "You've been here nine hours."

"Time?"

"8:45PM, same day." Henry closed his eyes briefly.

"I got shot, didn't I?" Ashley bowed her head, biting her lip and nodded.

"I'm so sorry Henry, I didn't think, I couldn't see which one was you, so I just..." She tailed off, breathing hard. "I'm sorry."

The scene was starting to come back to Henry, the other HAP, she'd been about to kill Magnus, but she'd been too fast for him, too strong.

"Ash," She looked up at him. "I don't blame you. You shoot things a lot. Most of the time, you shoot the right things. Every so often, you're gonna screw up, and at least it wasn't my head.

"Oh, c'mon Henry, I shot you. It was my bullet Mum pulled out of you, not Kate's. The least you can do is tell me to watch my aim.

"OK then, watch your aim. But if you hadn't shot both of us, she'd have ripped my guts out. Where is she?"

"Morgue." She'd shot the other one dead? Holy crap, he'd got off lightly. There was a long silence. "Can I get you anything?"

"Horse pill would be good." Ashley smirked, stood up and did something to his drip.

"7mg morphine. Mum said I could give that to you if you needed it, but it'll probably make you doze off."

"You don't have to stay you know."

"Yes, I do. It's my fault you're in here. Anyway, Druitt's blood came back clean, so he's swooping around like an overgrown bat. I don't wanna deal with him right now."

o0o0o0o

In a hundred and twenty years of running, John had become adept at wandering aimlessly, perhaps because it was easier to avoid detection on the move, perhaps because it kept him from dwelling overmuch. Now, however, he knew what he sought. For perhaps twenty minutes, he roamed the home, the sanctuary Helen had built, still in awe of the quiescence of his mind in the wake of the screaming beast. When he found her, he felt he should have known; the main lab, the centre of her nest.

She stood facing away from him, hands braced against the workbench, looking down at it, one leg bent, foot tilted on to its toe. She either hadn't heard his footfalls, or was ignoring them. The former more likely, she was lost in her work. He padded closer, eyes never leaving her, her long, dark hair falling like water over her shoulders, the delicate arch of her neck, the slow, rhythmic movements of her chest as she breathed. His feet made no sound as he halted at the edge of the pool of light she stood in. She didn't look human. She looked more: Immortal, a lioness when it suited her, a siren when it suited her. She'd shown him the siren long ago. He'd answered her call long ago. It had never ceased to haunt him.

Now she'd shown him freedom, an escape, a way they could retrieve the past, the past the thing locked in the basement had cost them.

Even now, in a different century, a different continent, the siren call echoed through his mind as he watched her; images, touches, voices, hushed gasps, muted cries. He stepped silently in to the light, towards her. He had to give her time to react. Part of his mind rebelled against the prospect of waiting, but he wasn't going to risk hurting her. He wanted her, and he wanted her to want him. He'd long since learned that any effort to dominate Helen was futile, it only earned her scorn. He wanted her love. He wanted to be with her, in more ways than one. He feared and craved her response. How much had her feelings changed? Enough that she'd shout, strike him, run? Little enough that she'd turn to him, smiling, accept him as if nothing had happened.

He leaned in to her, laying his hand in the small of her back, breathing her name against her neck. She tensed.


	16. Sextodecyl sextodecanoate

**I know it's a very random chapter end, but I wanted to post something tonight.**

**Enjoy.**

Helen tensed involuntarily. John's hand on her back, breath on her neck woke memories long buried, but never truly forgotten. She never heard the next two words she spoke, but she felt her mouth form them.

"John, don't." But she must have voiced them. He stepped back, eyes down.

"Understandable." He spoke quickly, without looking at her. "Your feelings have changed. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"My feelings?" She cut in, her voice louder than it should have been. "My feelings have changed?" He met her eyes briefly, uncomprehending. "I've changed, you've changed, the whole damn world has changed around us.

"What-" She couldn't even let him finish the question. She drew breath and plunged on.

"John, nothing's the same. There are three of our generation left, assuming Worth is actually dead this time. James and Nigel _are_ dead and we should be. The world's unrecognisable. We can reach space, speak to someone on the other side of the globe, smallpox barely exists anymore, half of what we were taught as children has been disproved, there are no constants. Not even us. We who never change. I'm not the woman you... loved in '85. I've seen too much, done too much. I bore our child and mourned her passing. I've changed. So have you. The first two subjects of the sourceblood trials don't exist anymore."

"They're both gone." John replied quietly. She nodded once in agreement.

"They died a long time ago." There was a silence.

"I killed you as much as I killed Kelly or Chapman." She shook her head.

"It killed them John, and you're far more a victim than I. The things it did to you, made you do..." She could feel the disgust creeping into her voice, the old horror that John, her John had... "What you kept it from doing." He bowed his head slightly. She shouldn't have said that. If it was still raw, painful for her, what must it be like for him? He was in a lot of pain and she wasn't helping. An apology half formed in her mouth.

"I'll leave you to your work." He spoke softly, turned and began to walk away. He was half in the shadows when she called out to him.

"John..." He turned as she hesitated, still unsure of where to stand, doubting she could ever be sure. "I can't say yes-"

"I understand that Helen." He cut across her, voice level, but she could sense the pain beneath. She was hurting him. She was hurting him and he'd endured enough.

"No, let me speak." She inhaled slowly. "I can't give you an answer because I just don't know. Everything I've thought of you in the past century has been turned on its head and I don't know where I stand. Will's admitted to watching me for psychological shock and I'm starting to think he's right. You must be worse. I know how frustrating an answer this must be, I know it must be the worst thing you can hear, but I need time, John, and I've no idea how much. He nodded once, his eyes never leaving her face, taking half a pace towards her.

"Just so you know," He said softly, earnestly. "there are many things now which are strange to me; I'd almost forgotten the sound of silence. My feelings for you are not among them. That was one part of me it could not move. You remained where all else had faded. I never stopped loving you." He turned and walked away. Helen lowered her head and sighed. That didn't make things any easier.

o0o0o0o

Will walked slowly down the Isal. corridor, mentally bracing himself. He'd found a note from Magnus on his desk that morning:

`All abnormals with homicidal tendencies or history are to be subject to psychologically evaluated in full prior to release from the grounds of any Sanctuary holding. Art. 59.03. Please start on JD ASAP.`

Will's first response had been to suspect major psychological shock and repression from Magnus's detatched language. His second had been to set about following her instructions. He had no idea if Druitt was likely to be up at this hour. If he wasn't he'd just have to come back later and file the HAP stuff while he waited.

Apparently, Druitt was up at this hour. He was sitting at his desk in the corner, wearing the clean shirt he'd been given, though it was too short in the arm, book open in front of him. He looked up quickly and turned as Will approached. Will opened the door a crack.

"Mind if I come in?"

"Not at all. Please." Druitt rose and indicated the chair. Will entered but didn't sit down.

"Sleep well?" Druitt laughed coldly.

"It's been all of a hundred and twenty years since that happened. I barely ever sleep naturally." Will, feeling he should have seen that coming, faltered for a moment. Druitt lowered his eyes, as if speaking to himself. "Methought I heard a voice cry `Sleep no more:  
>Macbeth does murder sleep`, the innocent sleep,<br>Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,  
>The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,<br>Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,  
>Chief nourisher in life's feast." Will blinked hard at him.<p>

"Was that what I brought you from the library?"

"What? No. You gave me Tennyson's narrative poetry."

"And that was Shakespeare's Macbeth?"

"It was. Act II scene II if I remember correctly."

"When did you last read that?" Druitt thought for a moment before replying.

"I have no idea. It can't have been before '69. 1869, that is, probably later. I doubt I went twenty years in society without at least reading extracts."

"And you've remembered for how long? That's impressive."

"Hardly, it's not an easy thing to forget if beaten in to you in your youth."

"Literally?"

"If one failed to pay due attention, yes." Will smiled.

"Look, do you wanna take a walk? You must be sick of the sight of this place."

"Very well." Druitt replied. Will got the impression he'd decided to be biddable. Not helpful. Will turned back to the door and let Druitt out ahead of him.

"It's a nice day out. Do you wanna get some air?"

"If you would prefer to. I thought a couch was traditional, but-"

"Only if you're Sigmund Freud, and Magnus gets annoyed if I compare myself to him." Druitt laughed softly.

"I can imagine."

"His theories about female sexuality kind of kicked everything she'd spent the first half of her life fighting for in the gut."

"Indeed." Neither of them spoke again until Will had led Druitt out in to the sunlight. Druitt broke the silence by sighing softly and saying,

"I suppose you will be asking me about the years between 1888 and the present."

"Actually, no." Will replied honestly. "That's the last thing I wanna do now. I'm more interested in you than the parasite. I wanna ask about the time before that; before the sourceblood."

"Ask away." Will bit his lip. Druitt was being far too amenable for comfort.

"OK, first I'm gonna say this: anything I ask, you can refuse to answer, and you're allowed to ask me stuff too. This isn't an interrogation." Druitt didn't answer. Will sighed. "When were you born?"

"18th of November, 1847, York, to Mr and Mrs Montague Druitt."

"Isn't your first name Montague?"

"And it was the first name of both my brothers, which is why I have never used it."

"Did you not get on very well with your father?"

"No, nor my brothers. My father was a small-minded man, ill-born but rich. He owned brickyards and that was all he understood or cared to understand. He married the fifth daughter of a baron for her blood. She'd no dowry to speak of and I don't believe he loved her, or she him."

"Did you get on any better with your mother?"

"A little, for the first six years of my life. She died soon after bearing my youngest sister. It was common. She wasn't much more than a girl?"

"How old?"

"Twenty-five, which probably makes her a woman in your sight, but not in mine."

"Can see why." Will remarked, wondering where to go next with this. "How did you end up at Oxford?"

"The school I had attended for some years had strong links with New College, at Oxford that is."

"Obviously not-so-new now." Will remarked. Druitt laughed dryly.

"A century here or there is nothing to a college which has stood since the 1300s." Will raised his eyebrows.

"New."

"It was new when it was founded."

"How many of The Five went there?"

"Officially, two. To all intents and purposes, three."

"You and..?"

"James, unofficially Helen."

"Because she wasn't allowed to enrol?"

"Correct, for all her efforts. Nigel and Nikola were at Hertford College nearby, ever one of the more left-wing colleges, still is from what I hear."

"Would left or right wing have made any difference to them?"

"To Nigel, yes. Of all of us, he was the lowest born. His father was in the matches trade, but, unlike my father, he wanted to see his sons better themselves through merit, not marrying desperate girls with no dowries."


	17. Septimodecyl septimodecanoate

**I know the history I have given Druitt contradicts actual census records in several places, but the show does this too and I would rather embroider the show's history than try to stitch two ill-matched edges together.**

**Also, I appologise for how long it's been since I posted. I've had a rather busy week.**

**Enjoy.**

"Did any of your brothers do that?"

"William, yes. Edward intended to. I can't speak for Arthur."

"That can't have been what you saw in Magnus"

"Indeed not. She was an heiress for a start, and an old maid. Ladies married young, ten or fifteen years younger than their husbands."

"I know." Will cut in. "I did my homework. And from what I can tell, Magnus would have been a good choice for any of the five."

"We all knew that. It took us a few weeks to see Helen as a peer, a fellow scientist, and to see that, if we were to learn anything, we needed her help. Once we treated her as an equal, she became a friend to all of us. It was then we began to compete for her attention. We were friends to her, enemies to each other. Nigel lost interest within a month and pursued a woman he felt he had a better chance of winning. He did win her eventually. James, Nikola and I continued to compete for almost a year, on every field we could; boxing, cricket, intellect, wit, chess... What we thought we could win by that, I have no idea. James yielded when Helen accepted me."

"D'you know why she chose you?"

"No. No one could fail to think she'd have been happier with James, given the pain I caused her. She'd have been respectable and happy all his life, raised her children in safety, and been able to continue her father's work. She may have accepted James later, I don't know."

Now that was interesting. Druitt spoke perfectly calmly, his voice was still level, but he radiated pain, anger, resentment, jealousy almost. There was no change in his stature, his voice, but still it poured off him. This was the topic to press.

"Did you and Magnus make plans for your life together?" Druitt faltered, as if deciding if he should answer.

"Yes, but I forget the details." Will didn't believe that for an instant. He drew breath to inquire further, but-

"Will, come in." Kate, on the radio. Will sighed.

"Excuse me." He pulled it from his belt. "Go ahead."

"Sighting of a Cogulden, we think, in the condemned sector."

"How'd it get there? It's tropical."

"Pet trade maybe? Van in five."

"Look, can you tell Magnus that-"

"Cogulden Will. We need all the eyes wer've got." Will sighed again.

"Fine." He turned back to Druitt. "I'm sorry. Can you find your way back to your room?"

"I should think so."

"OK. Good. Catch you later." Will turned and began to walk away.

"Doctor Zimmerman!" Will turned back to Druitt. "You have asked me about my past, I would like to ask you about my future."

"What do you mean?"

"I am a murderer, Doctor Zimmerman. I will answer for my crimes."

"Look, we gotta decide if they're your crimes first."

"How will that be decided?"

"A sort of... trial thing, called a circle."

"When will this `circle` be held?"

"I don't know, and I've gotta go. I'm sorry." Will turned and jogged away.

o0o0o0o

Ashley hated circle hearings, always had. The security was so tight, and had to be held together so carefully, that it took 3 days of e-mails dashed between her and the other House Heads of Security to sort out something practically human. Druitt had his own set of issues. Transporting a non-co-operative (sure, he was playing along, but a leopard can't change its spots. The only question was when he'd revert) abnormal able to teleport had driven them all mad. Holly, London's Security head, had suggested shielding a jet somehow. The techies hadn't liked that one bit. Eventually, Antonio, Buenos Aires, had clocked that Druitt wasn't the only one able to teleport, so they'd tranqued Druitt (he hadn't even objected to that), then she'd teleported him over to London and handed him over to Holly, then bolted out of the EM shield to the nearest safe house. Antonio had extended his suggestion to her transporting almost everyone who needed to be there to London, the safe house was her embarkation point, because it didn't have an EM shield. She closed and locked the door behind her, jogged to the back of the tall, narrow Victorian house (not much older than Mum) and drew out the cell phone she'd just been given, touching 3 on the speed dial. It was picked up almost at once.

"Tokyo, this is Ashley Magnus." She started, not giving the other person a chance to speak. "Please clear site Sky. I will be arriving in approximately one minute. Please have the delegation standing by."

"I am the delegation Miss Magnus, and we are ready for you now." Ashley nodded pointlessly, recognising the voice of the Sanctuary's head.

"OK." She released her breath slowly, dragging the image of site Sky from her memory: black and white marble floor, glass dome above. She threw herself in to the void.

o0o0o0o

Holly Malone surveyed her charge idly. He was twitching a little bit now, just coming round from the drugs. He didn't look that much older than Watson had before... well, than Watson had. But Ashley had told her otherwise. A hundred and sixty two! Luck bastard. Ashley had also told her that Druitt was a snake. Smile in your face and stab you in the belly. One of Holly's hands wandered towards the UZI at her hip. It had been a gift from Ashley two years ago to mark Holly's 18th. She carried the thing round like a child with a teddy bear. She didn't sleep with it in bed, but near enough, and if Ashley said the man was dangerous, he was dangerous, so Holly wasn't about to change her habits. Druitt jerked and cried out. Holly's fingers twitched closed round the UZI. She forced them open and backed half a pace from the bars of the holding cell. There was no point in acting hostile before she had to, but she wanted to be out of his reach. No real combat advantage, except the teleporting and the EM shield took care of that, but a bit of a ninja, or so Ashley said. If he was a ninja by Ashley's standards, Holly'd be glad of the bars between them. Druitt rolled on to his back and opened his eyes, breathing hard and looking around. After a minute, his eyes found hers. She smiled.

"Nice to see you awake." He took a moment to respond.

"London, I take it." Holly nodded. She wasn't sure how she'd expected him to speak, maybe low and rasping or... oily, but not clear, sharp, Queen's English, like Watson.

"I've been told to tell you; Shield's up, so you'll die if you try to get out that way, and I'm authorised to shoot you dead if you threaten me or anyone else, so can we avoid that please?" Druitt nodded and pushed himself in to a sitting position.

"I have no intention of trying to escape." He paused. "What time is it?"

"Local time, a quarter to nine. Circle meets at-"

"Ten Greenwich Meantime, I know."

"You weren't meant to wake up yet. I've never known Doctor Magnus get a dose wrong before and just what did she give you, I'd like to know, you woke up so... badly."

"I would tell you if I knew Miss..."

"Malone. Holly Malone."

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss Malone. I take it you already know my name." Holly nodded, surprised by his manner. Ashley had said `snake`.


	18. Duodevicesimyl duodevicesimoate

**My sincere appologies: I will not be able to post between the 11th and the 18th of this month at all. I will be on holliday with no internet.**

**Enjoy.**

Will stood in the atrium of the London Sanctuary, looking around. People stood in small groups around the edges, talking quietly; Henry and Erina, the heads of the Moscow, Buenos Aires and Mumbai sanctuaries, a group of four people, one of whom was an empath who'd examined Magnus last year. In fact, there were only two people standing alone: Him and Magnus. Magnus was standing as still as the pillar behind her, eyes fixed on the ground a few feet in front of her, hands clasped at her waist. She was trying so hard not to fidget, and doing too well. She'd been closed down and even more uncommunicative than usual since they'd brought Druitt in. He could see why she was finding this so difficult. As Sanctuary head, she had to be impartial, which couldn't be easy when her own feelings for Druitt were so strong, and conflicting. If she'd let Will in, he might have been able to help her, but so far as she was concerned, that would be admitting weakness, and there was no way she'd do that.

"Hey." Will turned to find Declan at his shoulder, carrying a full-looking briefcase.

"Hey."

"You look a bit lost."

"I still feel like the new guy at this type of thing."

"You've never seen a circle court, have you?"

"No, it's sort of like the triad thing for Magnus was last year, isn't it?"

"Sort of. We hold triads for our own, circles for some externals. Some are self-explanatory, so aren't worth the logistics. Some we leave to local authorities."

"OK..." Will said slowly. Declan smiled.

"Come on. I'll show you." He strode away down a corridor behind the staircase, through a pair of heavy wooden doors, right, then left, down a flight of stone steps, which spiralled down, two more heavy wooden doors, then in to an echoing hall of white stone.

"The accused," Declan began, walking over to a box up to waist height, 3` by 3` and made of the same white stone. "stands here and stays her. It's bolted shot. If they're unusually agile or flighted, they're immobilised somehow. If not, they're just handcuffed here." Declan lifted a chain from inside the box.

"Why so..."

"Over zealous? Because in 1947, an abnormal on trial went mad, killed the Moscow head of house, an empath and took a chunk out of Magnus." Declan crossed to a pedestal, maybe nine inches tall. "Whoever is giving evidence stands here, unless they're a head of house, in which case they stay there." He pointed to a raised bench, curved round one end of the room, with five chairs behind it.

"Five chairs? There are six Sanctuaries."

"Magnus is sitting out, because of her personal history with Druitt. She is present, but only as an interpreter. We shouldn't need one, but just in case. Anyway, everyone else just sits on these." He gestured to the low stone benches which ran round the rest of the room, with gaps every 8 feet or so. "The empaths (who are basically advanced lie detectors) sit there, and if one of them shields from the others, he or she is sent out. That's a new rule, after Emma. Guards stand there, there, there and there."

"OK, now I know where everyone sits, what actually happens?" Declan smiled again.

"Unlike a court of law, we don't have witnesses for and against, we hear everyone's evidence in one block, then withdraw to decide. Heads of house question like lawyers, but don't take turns. It's the head of the network's job to keep order, or it would be. It's mine today, so that could be fun." It was Will's turn to smile.

"You'll be fine." Declan sighed.

"Ten to." He lifted his radio. "Ashley, were are you?"

"Arriving."

"OK, assemble with the rest of the guard at the holding cell. Damian, Ben, pick up stunners for the other two on the way."

o0o0o0o

It was unbearable. Declan read aloud, describing time, place and attitude in which Chapman, Nicols and the rest had been found. Their bodies, their faces, their frozen, terrified eyes leapt before Magnus where she stood, to one side, isolated. She saw again James muttering as he circled the bodies, asking her opinion, as if somehow he knew she had the answers, and they were devouring her soul. Perhaps the worst of it was seeing John just standing there, bound and at the point of four guns (including Ashley's), head bowed, but voice still clear, confessing to murder after murder after murder, then listing more; New York, Hati, Saigon, Calcutta, Mumbai (he called it Bombay still), Mexico City, Delhi, Cairo, Botswana...

He spoke without reluctance, he wasn't trying to hide what he had done, what had been done to him, or had he just resigned himself to whatever they decided to do to him?

He was acquitted of the murders he'd committed while working as a surgeon in the Western Front's trenches, not twenty miles from her post, because they'd been against the enemy in a time of war. The heads of house had decided, after some deliberation, that they might have been committed by any soldier. If anything, he was more responsible for those. He'd chosen his own victims at least. He was not acquitted of the eighty odd Cabal he'd slaughtered. How long could this go on for?

o0o0o0o

Declan straightened in his chair, inhaling slowly.

"Due to the duration of infestation, there is little information regarding Mr. Druitt's character before it began. One source I did manage to find was Doctor Watson's journals, which I read by permission of his last will and testimony." He swallowed. Even if Doctor Watson had given his permission, Declan felt the taint on his hands like blood. Everything Doctor Watson had done, felt, thought was written out before him. It felt like such an intrusion, had Doctor Watson been alive to confirm his permission it would have been different. Had Doctor Watson been alive to confirm his permission, it wouldn't have been Declan's job to sort this mess out. He pushed himself on. "He initially described Mr. Druitt as" He looked down at his notes.  
>"`A retiring sort of man who knows his own mind, but won't inflict it on others unless pressed to do so.` His initial response to Mr. Druitt being accused of the Ripper murders was:<br>`Which hapless Sergeant thought of that, and what had he been drinking the night before? I can easily imagine John dealing out a few sharp punches if he, or someone he cared for, were sufficiently threatened, maybe doing serious damage if Helen were concerned, but what possessed the sergeant, I have no idea. I have known John well for three years, he is my dearest friend and I have only known him be vicious when boxing, and not always then. The thought of his attacking a defenceless woman unprovoked would be laughable, were it not for the fact that someone obviously is doing so, and slipping out from under our very noses. John eschews contact with that sort of woman completely. The thought of his speaking to one is strange, the thought of his attacking one quite ludicrous. His employment occasionally obliges him to send men to the gallows, but he avoids it where he can. If John is a killer, then I am as easily led as a pit pony. I persuaded the Constable that, as John lives in Kent, where he had been seen not three hours before one of the poor girls was killed by several people, the Sergeant's accusation was unsound. John found this very amusing. As he pointed out, if he were to take up murder as a pastime, his living in Kent would hardly hinder his committing the murders in Whitechapel.`" Declan paused and looked up. Doctor Magnus still stood frozen, her face unreadable. Druitt stood still, head bowed, knuckles white. Did he remember laughing with Doctor Watson? Did he hear the journal's words in Doctor Watson's voice? Declan did. "I have edited the following passage, but only to remove the third of it which was cursing."

"Truth." Dara, one of the empaths called out. They were the only ones allowed to speak without permission. Declan drew a breath to continue. This was the worst bit. Reading this had felt like watching a man struggle with a newly broken leg and doing nothing to help. Trawling through Doctor Watson's darkest pain had felt like inflicting torture. Declan pressed on.


	19. Unodevicesimyl unodevicesimoate

**I'm back, as you can see.**

**Enjoy.**

Henry stood on the plinth, meeting Declan's eye and trying very hard not to fidget.

"Mr. Foss, please describe your first encounter with Mr. Druitt, only what you witnessed yourself, nothing you were told." Henry paused, reaching back in to his memory.

"Just so you know," He started, "I might not remember all this right."

"We can sort that out later, Mr. Foss." Declan replied. "Please tell us what you do remember."

"Ashley brought him in and told me to put him in the SHU. He was unconscious, on a gurney, handcuffed." Henry spoke as quickly as he could, wanting this to be over. "A stunner usually keeps a human or similar out for over an hour, so I cut him loose and put the gun down. He got up and put the gun in my back, made me let him out of the lift, asked about something in the SHU, can't remember what, then teleported away. That was all I saw of him that time."

"Mr. Druitt, why were you in Old City?"

"My mutation is not very stable. Doctor Magnus's is, and it stabilizes my own. I have required injections of her serum on two separate occasions to avoid a slow, painful death."

"Partial concealment." Keiko, and Empath and apprentice techie from Tokyo called out. Druitt sighed.

"I also killed that night, but she is among those listed."

"Same." Keiko said determinedly. This time, Druitt didn't answer until asked.

"Mr. Druitt?"

"I do not withhold information for my own sake."

"Never the less..." Druitt's eyes were fixed on his own, bound hands.

"I was by that time aware that Doctor Magnus had conceived a child in 1888 and not bourn it. I found impossible that she had... killed the child without giving it a chance to live. I also knew that she had bourn and raised a child. I thought it likely that the child was mine and was... curious. I was also aware that the presence of a child could prove useful if Doctor Magnus was unwilling to yield a little of her blood." Henry didn't have to turn to see the anger on Ash's face.

"That's all." Keiko said. Declan sighed, burying his face in his hands.

"OK. Mr. Foss, could you please describe your encounter with Mr. Druitt involving the Zulu Empaths." Henry nodded and started.

o0o0o0o

"Doctor Zimmerman, how long have you been working with Mr. Druitt, and how frequently?" Will didn't have to pause to answer Declan's question. He'd been anticipating it.

"A little over two weeks, almost daily."

"How would you describe his mental condition in terms of what is seen in normal police work?" This Will did have to think about.

"Probably between someone who has been forced in to Mafia work because their family was threatened or because of addiction, a man-slaughterer and a kidnap victim."

"Why so?"

"The first two because he feels very responsible for his actions and struggles a lot with the fact that, corporeally at least, he did kill a lot of people. He's contrite and the accuracy of his memory of kills is evidence that they affect him a lot. It's tortuous for him. Kidnap victim because the sudden return of control over his mind is similar to that of a kidnap victim's actions. He doesn't really know what to do with himself. He's very restless, starting at shadows, and he paces a lot."

"Have you ever had reason to suspect that Mr. Druitt has taken mind-altering drugs recently?" Raj asked.

"Yes." Will replied shortly. "He told me so himself."

"Can you provide details?"

"Once or twice, Ecstasy, but not in the past six months, usually with Ketamine." The Cairo head of house recoiled slightly at the concept. "He's also been taking Ketamine on its own to subdue himself and the parasite on a fairly regular basis, to try and prevent himself from killing, but it was only ever delaying the inevitable."

"What sort of dose are we talking about here?" Declan asked.

"In milligrams, he has no idea. He never knew the strength of the solution he used, he took it until he was incapacitated." There was a silence. Raj broke it.

"As a professional, do you believe that Mr. Druitt will kill again?"

"If he, or someone he loved, was under imminent threat of death, and he had no other option, I think he could. Otherwise, no." Will replied shortly.

o0o0o0o

Declan exhaled slowly. He was so nearly there. He just had to finish questioning Valentina, then the worst was over.

"What manner of tests have you performed on the entity?" He asked.

"We... we put him, it, in to a rat." Valentina just looked terrified. Declan knew how much she hated being away from home, and how much she hated big groups of people. Poor girl. "Sorry. I say `him` because we call him Jack. Can I say that here?"

"Yes." Declan gave her a small smile. "Of course." She returned the smile fleetingly.

"Well, the rat was female, penned with two males and another female. Jack... Jack waited until he was alone with each male, then killed them both in turn and mutilated them, bodies torn up.."

"Devoured?" Raj put in.

"No. Not at all. Just torn up."

"Was that the only test?" Declan prompted.

"No. We put him in Call of Duty, by-" Valentina cursed in Russian. "I don't have the words for how. Even in team games, he kills anyone he can, flees the place and hides for a while. On Total War, he chooses his generals for dread, rules settlements by holding huge garrisons and kills all those who riot, kills all the prisoners. If a city rebels, he takes it back and kills everyone. I have never seed an entity so aggressive, take so much happiness from killing."

"So you have no doubt that this entity is a killer."

"I have never seed one like it. He will do anything to kill just one more time."

"Have you done simulations to mimic normal society?"

"Yes."

"How often does it kill?"

"Daily, or more, simulated time that is."

"Hang on," Raj interjected. "Mr. Druitt killed a few times annually at least, weekly or fortnightly at most."

"Are you suggesting that Mr. Druitt restrained the entity?" Declan asked.

o0o0o0o

Magnus stood motionless, eyes down. The other heads of house had withdrawn to judge, to decide John's fate. She didn't even dare glance at her watch to see how long they had been gone. It felt like moments and days at once. He stood, bound by the wrist, as still as her, as he had stood for the past three hours. His lack of power over his own fate must be so hard for him to bear. John had been many things over the decades; powerless she could not imagine had been one of them frequently, if at all. She could have said the same for herself. It wasn't often she had no control over events, and she'd learned to associate powerlessness with fear. She had scarcely moved in the past hours, knowing exactly what the outcomes could be, but not feeling she could cope with any of them, not yet. After a century of misted fear, a fortnight was barely an instant.

The heavy door reopened. The other heads of house returned to their seats. John looked up, face still betraying no fear. Declan spoke.

"The heads of the Sanctuary network find Montague John Druitt of an unstable mental state, so subject to bi-annual evaluation by a member of Sanctuary staff. However, on grounds of overpowering internal, malicious influence, we find Montague John Druitt innocent of murder in every incidence."

o0o0o0o

Kate half ran, half stumbled through the back gate after Ashley, into a small basement room.

"Twenty minutes, seventeen seconds." Ashley panted, looking at her watch. "Freaking slower than yesterday."

"Been a long day." Kate gasped back.

"Uh-huh." Ashley flopped on to the floor, picking up a bottle of water. "Teleporting takes it out of you more than you'd think." Kate nodded and joined her on the floor.

"I'll sleep well tonight." Ashley laughed sourly.

"I won't. Not 'till I know where he's sleeping." There it was. Ashley had run today like her life had depended on it, never a good sigh. "He got off. He's walking around, free as a freaking bird, after all the trouble he's caused, all the people he's killed."

"Least he's not staying on as staff." Kate offered. "He'll sod off in a month or so."

"But 'till then?" Ashley replied. "The way he looks at Mum, don't you see it? It's like he's ready to jump on her, and if he does, it will be without her consent."

"If he does that, you'll kill him, if he survives your Mum. He's not that stupid."

"What if she lets him?"

"You just said she wouldn't."

"I don't know." Ashley dug her fists in to her forehead. "She's always said don't go with a guy if he's ever hurt you, and he tore her up. But she saved him."

"Ash, that's her job. He's an abnormal. Your Mum's got too much sense to let him hurt her. In a month, he'll be gone and neither of us ever has to see his ugly face again." Ashley smiled briefly.

"Guess so."

"I know so." There was a silence.

"Thanks."

"Any time."

**We're nearing the end (as you can probably tell), one or two more chapters.**


	20. Vicesimyl vicesimoate

**This is it. The end is finally here. Thanks to all of you who've been reading since the start of Monster. The two fics must total to well over 60,000 words by now, and I'm still writing. There will be more.**

**And by the way, my spelling of oestrus isn't wrong, it's English. We keep the Greek vowel digraphs (aesthetic/esthetic, for example). **

**Enjoy.**

Will paused outside Magnus's study door, she was sat at her computer, probably reading e-mails, as if nothing significant had happened. Typical Magnus; suppress, suppress and keep suppressing. Will sighed and tapped on the door.

"Magnus?" She looked up.

"Will." She smiled and gestured to a chair opposite her. Her poker face was insanely good.

"There are a couple of things I need to run by you." She tilted her head slightly. "Firstly, can we move Druitt out of Isal now? He'll be here for a few weeks, so..."

"If you think it's a good idea, of course."

"OK. Where can he go?"

"First floor, west wing, perhaps? There are a few spare rooms down there." And it was just about the furthest in the Sanctuary you could get from where Magnus slept. Will sighed.

"OK. Fine. About rehabilitation; I think we wanna get going on that as soon as possible."

"I won't tell you how to do your job, Will. It's your decision." The light tone, the unaffected expression, so typically Magnus when she felt threatened, but not threatened enough to break off communications. Safe to push her? Probably.

"Are you sure about that?" She blinked and adjusted the angle of her head.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Will hesitated.

"He's kind of a special case, Magnus. You have a lot of history with him."

"Which is just that, Will. History. It has been over a century since I knew Druitt," She called him John to his face. "and we've both changed a lot in that time. To all intents and purposes, he's a stranger to me now. You at least have spent time working with him of late." Will fought to match Magnus's poker face.

"Yes, I have, and he's cooperating, but," Will hesitated, choosing his words with care. "you were... very close to him for a long time."

"A very long time ago, I repeat."

"Oh, for God's sake, Magnus, you were going to marry the guy, you had his kid!" Will knew at once he'd crossed a line. The shutters closed behind Magnus's eyes and she cut across him.

"That is irrelevant. People change out of recognition in twenty years, let alone a hundred and twenty. I claim no affinity for John Druitt. He's an abnormal in need of help, nothing more, nothing less."

"Magnus, would it kill you to admit what's between you? I'm not asking you to act on anything, just acknowledge it."

"There is nothing to acknowledge, Doctor Zimmerman." Will saw any opening there had been close as soon as he heard his surname. "There is nothing between us now. Did you have anything else to say?" Will faltered. She was now lying outright rather than just evading the truth. there was nothing more to be gained there, and he did need her consent for a few other things. He sighed.

"OK. The two main problems with Druitt are that he has no idea how to handle a computer and, more importantly, he's forgotten how to interact normally, but you can't sit down and teach that, so my plan was to maintain an hour or two of one-to-one daily, but in the form of teaching him technology, so he doesn't feel like he's under a microscope so much. I'd like to bring Henry in in a week or so, then gradually more people; you, Steeve, the Big Guy, later Kate."

"I have many demands placed on my time, Will." Magnus put in defensively. Will ignored her.

"Later, I'd like to take him out of the Sanctuary and get him interacting with the public. It would start with things like walking down to the store to buy a newspaper. I'm not sure how far past that we'd get in a month and I don't think we have to worry about him running." Magnus nodded once.

"I can't see any obvious problems there. If any arise, let me know." She stood up. Will copied her, knowing that she wanted him out. She could be so obstinate when she felt threatened. Will turned and walked back out, not bothering to say goodbye in any capacity.

o0o0o0o

"Mum!" Ashley called, catching sight of her. Mum looked up from the cage she was looking in to.

"Sweetheart?"

"Is Fran, Cethydral with... you know..." Ashley gestured to her hip. Mum understood. The Cethydral who'd dislocated his hip a while back. "Is he out of cage rest?"

"Yes. He has been for a fortnight. Why?"

"He is the one we want to mate Libby with, isn't he?" Ashley asked. Captive breeding was all that was keeping Cethydrals going. If you fed one slug poison, it would secrete a very strong stimulant for an hour or two, then die. What some people would do for a few bucks...

"Yes. Is she in oestrus?"

"I think so." Ashley replied, raising her hands. "She's making weird waily noises and she was bolder than usual when I went in to feed her."

"That sounds like oestrus for a Cethydral to me."

"Wait, don't you wanna check?"

"Sweetheart, I trust you, for heaven's sake. You know what you're doing. We need to catch Fran. Are you busy, or will you help me?"

"Sure." Ashley nodded.

Cethydrals responded badly to electrical stunners and tranqing Fran right before putting him in with Libby would have been practically murder. They were left with no choice but graspers and nets. It was nearly half an hour of trying to corner or sneak up on Fran before either of them managed to get a grasper on him and, out of breath and laughing, they transferred him to Libby's enclosure.

Watching the pair of abnormals, neither more than twenty inches long, circle each other, flitting back a foot or so every so often, Ashley gathered her courage. There were things she needed to hear from her Mum.

"D'you think she knows?" She gestured at the abnormals.

"Knows what?"

"Where this is gonna lead." Mum paused for a second.

"I don't think any viviparous creature could be oblivious to it once her offspring start moving."

"No, I meant this." Ashley gestured at the Cethydrals, as Libby rolled on to her side, resuming her wailing, then leapt up and bit Fran when he got close and pinned him in a stranglehold.

"To some extent, they must. Even specimens with no experience behave in the same way." Ashley braced herself. It was usually parents like this with kids, not the other way around.

"It means more to us though, doesn't it?"" Mum blinked and looked down at her concernedly.

"Sweetheart, are you alright?" Ashley nodded. Fran pulled free of Libby and chased her up a tree.

"It's not me, Mum." Libby jumped out of the tree, Fran followed and she turned on him. "You've always said, if a guy hurts you, leave and don't go back, ever."

"Yes." Fran darted away from Libby, a vivid gash in his side. "I have." There was a long silence.

"Well..." Libby rolled and resumed her unearthly wailing.

"Is this about Druitt?" Ashley almost flinched at her mother's sudden directness.

"Yeah." Ashley stood still, waiting for her mother's anger, watching Fran begin to inch back towards Libby.

"Are you afraid I'll go back to him?" Ashley nodded. "Sweetheart, I won't." Libby leapt at Fran again. "In 1888, I loved him with all my being, but love is built on trust, and he destroyed that. If he'd trusted me as I did him, he'd have told me as soon as he knew, or even suspected, that anything was wrong, he'd have let me help him. Trust can be destroyed in an instant, let alone a century." Ashley nodded. "Does that reassure you?" Libby retreated, limping a little on her left foreleg, spines on the back of her neck standing up.

"Yeah." Ashley put her arm around her mother. "Thanks."

o0o0o0o

Half an hour later, confident that the Cethydrals wouldn't do each other permanent damage and her evening rounds complete, Magnus returned to her office. The night-lights of the city cast a strip of light from the window in to the room. She poured herself half a glass of claret and wandered over to the window. It was a strange dynamic between her and Ashley. Maybe it was a consequence of raising a daughter alone, without a father present, and Ashley not leaving home. Ashley still deferred to her and usually did as she was told, but both Magnus and Ashley took the other's advice seriously and, particularly since Ashley's return, behaved more like equals than parent and child.

Ashley's concern for Magnus was touching. Magnus understood Ashley's despising Druitt, even if she didn't feel it herself. Or did she? She understood that Druitt was potentially dangerous, but Will believed that he wouldn't kill again. Magnus felt a line of tension in her spine. Did she trust Will's judgement? If she thought he was wrong, she had a duty to report it and request a second opinion. But she did trust Will on this type of matter, she'd seen for herself the pain it had caused Druitt to recall what he'd done. So why did the recollection of it turn her cold inside? By any standards, he'd been a notorious serial killer; untraceable, uncatchable, victims spattered across the globe.

But it was more than that. She'd dealt with killers before. Familiarity had almost bred contentment. Whenever Druitt appeared, she became vulnerable. Whenever she was near John, her defences collapsed. Had it really taken her so long to recover? Had she not yet accepted that the man she'd once loved had not been all he'd seemed? Was a part of her still screaming in agony that John, her John, the man she'd trusted implicitly in every way, the man she'd have followed to the ends of the earth, the man from whom she'd withheld nothing, had been the Whitechapel Ripper?

She was stronger than that. She was not still mourning a lover she'd lost in the 1880s, she barely ever thought of the half dozen who'd been since. Yet still she thought of him. That said, he was currently living in her house, not that she particularly wanted him there, particularly given how edgy his presence made Ashley. But it wasn't only Ashley. She, Magnus, behaved differently around him too. She was... cautious, defensive, took offence at nothing. All the behaviour she adopted when she felt vulnerable. So was that it? He made her feel vulnerable. Because she remembered that pain? Because she feared more? But how could he hurt her if she felt nothing for him?

The answer manifested itself at once, resounding through her, terrifyingly clear, so certain. But wrong. The answer was wrong. That couldn't be true, not after all this time. She couldn't feel...

Magnus stood up sharply, setting down her almost untouched glass, pushing the answer away, out of sight. There must be something she could be doing. She walked out of her study briskly, away from her mind.

o0o0o0o

Magnus stood silently by the trunk of a tree, looking out across the Sanctuary grounds, concealed from view. Above her head, the buds of leaves were beginning to break, but she paid them no heed. Two men stood by the wrought iron gates, one carrying a case which held most, if not all, of his worldly possessions. The past century had taken everything from him. John Druitt speaking to Will.

"...you actually managed quite a lot considering."

"Hardly, Doctor Zimmerman. If you recall, I achieved most of that before..."

"Maybe. But you weren't a qualified doctor in '88 were you?"

"No, but in '14... The Western Front was crying out for medics and I still felt an affinity for my homeland and I had learnt a lot from Helen and James."

"Well, it sure made it a lot easier to find you a possession, once you've finished retraining, and that won't take long."

"I could hardly have returned to work as a magistrate, where reputation is so vital."

"There's more demand for Doctors anyway."

"I don't doubt it." There was a pause.

"You do know where you're going, right?" John laughed softly.

"Yes, Doctor Zimmerman. I am to teleport to Kent, the one in Washington that is, as it's the nearest I've been to Seattle, there I meet Doctor Fitzgerald, who will take me to where I am to train." Will nodded.

"And you know you can call us if things go wrong."

"I doubt that will be necessary."

"Then I guess all that's left is to say thank you." Will offered his hand, John took it. "I've enjoyed spending time with you in the past two months"

"I think I should be thanking you, Doctor Zimmerman. I wish you the best of luck in whatever awaits you and bid you farewell." John turned and covered the distance to the gate. He was leaving. Magnus stepped out and strode after him, moving as fast as she could without running. She had to talk to him. There were things she couldn't leave unsaid any longer. The gate swung open before him. He was leaving. She had to talk to him. He stepped through the archway. The gate swung closed behind him. She had to talk to him. Fire lit the gateway for an instant, then he was gone. Too late.

"Magnus?" Will was looking at her, with a face that said he'd understood that far too well. She looked down at the ground, breathing hard, commanding herself to be calm.

"Will, the resident psychiatrist at Tokyo wants to talk to you as soon as is convenient. She has an abnormal, an empath, on suicide watch and wants advice." Will looked at her quizzically.

"Is that all?"

"Yes." She replied firmly. Will raised his hands slightly in a gesture of futility.

"I'll get right on it."

Magnus nodded, turned and walked back towards the main building, Will half a pace behind her.

**Thanks to my Mum, for encouraging me to pen my ideas in the first place, about three years ago.**

**Thanks to my brother, for being a pain and teaching me to imagine.**

**Thanks to my Grandmother, who has just had her second book published; Broken Warrior by Joy Mawby, for being an inspiration.**

**Thanks to Tapping, Kindler and Wood for creating this world we can all visit.**

**Thanks to God, for, well... everything.**


End file.
